Birth spacing, fertility and neonatal mortality in India: dynamics, frailty and fecundity

Arbeitspapier

A dynamic panel data model of neonatal mortality and birth spacing is analyzed, accounting for causal effects of birth spacing on subsequent mortality and of mortality on the length of the next birth interval, while controlling for unobserved heterogeneity in mortality (frailty) and birth spacing (fecundity). The model is estimated using micro data on almost 30,000 children of 7,300 Indian mothers, for whom a complete retrospective record of fertility and child mortality is available. Information on sterilization is used to identify an equation for completion of family formation that is needed to account for right-censoring in the data. We find clear evidence of frailty, fecundity, and causal effects of birth spacing on mortality and vice versa, but find that birth interval effects can explain only a limited share of the correlation between neonatal mortality of successive children in a family. We also predict the impact of mortality on total fertility. Model simulations suggest that, for every neonatal death, an additional 0.37 children are born, of whom 0.3 survive.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 2163

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health Behavior ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models: Panel Data Models; Spatio-temporal Models
• Subject: fertility ; birth spacing ; neonatal mortality ; health ; dynamic panel data models ; siblings ; Fruchtbarkeit ; Kindersterblichkeit ; Indien

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bhalotra, Sonia ; van Soest, Arthur
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2006

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/33968
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET