Publications & Multimedia
Hundreds of journal articles, book chapters, working papers, and dissertations have been produced through the PopPov research initiative and contribute to the evidence base on the links between population dynamics, reproductive health, and economic development. Interviews and reports summarize key findings from the research articles, papers, and dissertations produced through PopPov.
312 Results
for ”
”
-
April 2017Report
ECONPOP: Results for Sustainable Development
Results from the ECONPOP research program provide insight into how social and health policies can affect population growth and migration. Such policies also shape education and health of the future labor force.
-
February 2017Journal Article
Son Preference, Number of Children, Education and Occupational Choice in Rural Nepal
A unique family survey was conducted in Nepal to investigate the economic consequences of having a first-born girl.
-
January 2017Dissertation
The Puzzle of Family Planning in Tanzania: A multi-method approach for understanding the use of family planning practices
This present thesis, therefore, aims at examining both determinants and barriers to utilization of family planning methods in Tanzania.
-
January 2017Working Paper
Risk Information, Risk Salience, and Adolescent Sexual Behavior: Experimental Evidence from Cameroon
Results from a randomized experiment conducted with teenage schoolgirls in Cameroon suggest that HIV prevention interventions can be effective at reducing the incidence of teen pregnancy in the following 9-12 months by over 25 percent.
-
October 2016Working Paper
Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Interventions on Migration and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Quasi-Random Child Health and Family Planning Program in Bangladesh
In this paper, we take advantage of the quasi-randomly placed Matlab Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning (MCH-FP) program that started in 1977, the phasing out of the program over time, and recent survey data collected by the authors to evaluate the effect of the MCH-FP program on migration and labor market outcomes.
-
September 2016Journal Article
Nutrition, information and household behavior: Experimental evidence from Malawi
This paper studies the effects of a randomized intervention in rural Malawi that, over a six-month period, provided mothers of young infants with information on child nutrition without supplying any monetary or in-kind resources.
-
July 2016Report
Interventions to Address the Economic Causes and Consequences of HIV/AIDS
This policy brief highlights research on financial and educational interventions that can help reduce new HIV infections.
-
June 2016Working Paper
Causes and Consequences of Teen Childbearing: Evidence from a Reproductive Health Intervention in South Africa
The rollout of the National Adolescent Friendly Clinic Initiative (NAFCI) serves as a natural experiment to study the causes and consequences of early teen child bearing.
-
June 2016Report
Investing in Women and Girls for a Gender Dividend
As countries around the world embark on a drive to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030, the concept of a demographic dividend is attracting increased attention among policymakers seeking more sustainable economies.
-
June 2016Journal Article
Fertility, Household’s size and Poverty in Nepal
Population control policies keep on attracting massive attention: having more children would directly contribute to household’s poverty. Using household level data from Nepal, we investigate the links between household’s fertility decisions and variations in their size and composition.
-
May 2016Report
Stakeholder Listings
These stakeholder listings serve to facilitate the dissemination of research results and recommendations to the appropriate stakeholders in government, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.
-
April 2016Working Paper
Youth friendly clinics make inroads in reducing unintended teen births in South Africa
Despite widespread, freely available contraception and progressive reproductive health laws, most teen mothers report their last pregnancy as unintended or unplanned. This begs the question: Why are many sexually active teens failing to use contraceptives when they are widely available for free?
-
April 2016Journal Article
Female Empowerment and the Education of Children in Nepal
Policies for female empowerment need to be tailor-made to specific societies and social groups. The findings indicate that policies for economic empowerment of women, such as education and entrepreneurship programs, may have to be combined with programs that affect social values and norms if the target is to change intrahousehold decisions.
-
March 2016Report
Communicating Research: Policymakers’ Perspective
This policy brief summarizes policymakers’ perspectives on what constitutes barriers to evidence-informed policymaking; strategies for making research results more accessible to high-level policymakers at the country level; and examples of how PopPov-supported researchers addressed policy-relevant questions and applied some of the outreach strategies that policymakers suggest.
-
February 2016Journal Article
Migration and the Equilibrium Prevalence of Infectious Diseases
This paper models how migration both influences and responds to differences in disease prevalence between cities and shows how the possibility of migration away from high-prevalence areas affects long-run steady state disease prevalence.
-
January 2016Journal Article
The Role of Risk Perception in Child Mobility Decisions in West Africa, Empirical Evidence From Benin
Ethnographic research suggests that child mobility serves as a social risk management strategy for vulnerable, uninsured rural households. In line with this research, and as a supplement to previous empirical research on child mobility, this article suggests that child mobility is not only implemented as response to shocks and poverty, but also ex-ante such situations.
-
January 2016Journal Article
The Effect of Cash, Vouchers, and Food Transfers on Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Northern Ecuador
Using a randomized experiment in Ecuador, this study provides evidence on whether cash, vouchers, and food transfers targeted to women and intended to reduce poverty and food insecurity also affected intimate partner violence.
-
January 2016Working Paper
Thirty-five years later: evaluating effects of a quasi-random child health and family planning programme in Bangladesh
This project examines the effects of the Matlab Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning (MCH-FP) program which were implemented in 1977. Treatment and comparison areas were built into the design of the program. The program was phased in over time, starting with family planning and maternal health. Measles vaccination began in 1982 and other child health interventions were included in 1986.
-
January 2016Journal Article
The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?: a mixed methods study on causal mechanisms through which cash and in-kind food transfers decreased intimate partner violence
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is highly prevalent and has detrimental effects on the physical and mental health of women across the world. Despite emerging evidence on the impacts of cash transfers on intimate partner violence, the pathways through which reductions in violence occur remain under-explored.
-
January 2016Journal Article
Estimating the costs for the treatment of abortion complications in two public referral hospitals: a cross-sectional study in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
In spite of the importance of studying the burden of the treatment of induced abortion complications, few studies have been conducted to document the costs of treating abortion complications in Burkina Faso. Our objective was to estimate the costs of six abortion complications including incomplete abortion, hemorrhage, shock, infection/sepsis, cervix or vagina laceration, and uterus perforation treated in two public referral hospital facilities in Ouagadougou and the cost saving of providing safe abortion care services.
-
January 2016Journal Article
The Decision to Invest in Child Quality over Quantity: Household Size and Household Investment in Education in Vietnam
We investigate whether the micro-level evidence supports the hypothesis that Vietnamese parents are in fact making a tradeoff between quantity and “quality” of children.
-
December 2015Report
Making the Case for Investing in Adolescent Reproductive Health
This report examines the evidence for investing in adolescent reproductive health and family planning programs from the perspective of making an evidence-based argument to guide the investment or spending decisions of public or private organizations. This report highlights new research from the Population and Poverty (PopPov) Research Initiative that bolsters the case for these investments and identifies knowledge gaps where research is still needed.
-
November 2015Report
Economic Shifts Affect the Well-Being of Vulnerable Populations
A challenging global environment with slow economic growth, volatile commodity prices, higher food and energy prices, and extreme weather events and natural disasters contribute to poverty in Southern and Southeastern Asia.
-
November 2015Dissertation
Power and Pregnancies: Disentangling Causes and Consequences of Safe Motherhood in Tanzania
This thesis adds to the literature in three ways. First, it brings the two concepts of empowerment and safe motherhood together in a dynamic way, focusing on both the causes and consequences. The central research question of this thesis is therefore: How are women’s empowerment and safe motherhood causally related? Secondly, it provides clearer evidence on which empowerment dimensions is related to which phase of the reproductive cycle. Thirdly, it does so using unique panel data from the Lake Zone region in Tanzania.
-
November 2015Journal Article
The Persistent Effects of In-Utero Nutrition Shocks Over the Life Cycle: Evidence From Ramadan Fasting
More than a billion Muslims living today were potentially exposed to their mother’s fasting in utero. This paper uses the Indonesian Family Life Survey to study the persistent effects of in utero exposure to Ramadan over the life cycle.
-
October 2015Report
Social and Economic Factors Influence Contraceptive Use
Family planning helps women prevent or delay childbearing and space pregnancies for healthier outcomes, but many women in Tanzania have an unmet need for contraception.
-
October 2015Report
The Economic Impact of Adverse Maternal Health Outcomes
The maternal mortality ratio in Burkina Faso is 400 deaths per 100,000 live births, far higher than the global average of 126 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2013.
-
October 2015Report
Access to Health Care Affects Teenage Childbearing
Evidence from South Africa indicates that physical distance to a health care facility is important for health care access and outcomes.
-
October 2015Journal Article
Unconditional government social cash transfer in Africa does not increase fertility
We evaluated the Zambian Child Grant Programme, a government unconditional cash transfer targeted to families with a child under the age of 5 and examine impacts on fertility and household composition.
-
October 2015Working Paper
Mental Accounting and Mobile Banking: Can labeling an M-PESA account increase savings?
Working with a sample of vulnerable women in Kenya, we conduct a field experiment involving a savings intervention consisting of a labeled mobile banking (M-PESA) account, savings goal setting, and text message reminders. The effect of the intervention on savings is positive but imprecisely estimated.
-
August 2015Journal Article
Contraceptive Supply and Fertility Outcomes: Evidence From Ghana
I exploit exogenous, temporary reductions in contraceptive supply in Ghana, resulting from cuts in US funding, to examine impacts on pregnancy, abortion, and births.
-
July 2015Journal Article
Food Price Spikes Are Associated with Increased Malnutrition among Children in Andhra Pradesh, India
We investigated the associations between food price spikes and childhood malnutrition in Andhra Pradesh, one of India’s largest states, with >85 million people. Rising food prices were associated with an increased risk of malnutrition among children in India. Policies to help ensure the affordability of food in the context of economic growth are likely critical for promoting children’s nutrition.
-
July 2015Report
Productivité planification familiale et santé de la reproduction: Une étude interdisciplinaire au Burkina Faso
Le projet PopDev, financé par « Economic and Social Research Council » du Royaume-Uni dans le cadre de l’initiative PopDev, examine ainsi le travail des femmes et comment la santé de la reproduction et la grossesse affectent la productivité.
-
July 2015Working Paper
Fertility and Mother’s Labor Market Behavior: Evidence From the 2011 South African Census
The relationship between fertility and female labor force participation has been a subject of attention for several decades. Most of the literature focuses on developed countries and responds to the interest in understanding the evolution of the increasing female role in labor markets during the last century and the possible effect that controlled fertility may have on it. Fertility, however, is a choice variable and thus endogenous.
-
June 2015Journal Article
Fertility Limitation and Child Schooling in Ouagadougou: Selective Fertility or Resource Dilution?
Using original data collected in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, this study investigates evidence for the competing theories that fertility reductions increase children’s education through either the quantity–quality tradeoff (intentionally choosing smaller families to make greater investments in education and other indicators of child quality) or resource dilution (having more children reduces resources available per child, regardless of intentionality of family size).
-
June 2015Report
Evidence Can Help Make Sustainable Development Investments Strategic
In June 2015, the Population and Poverty (PopPov) Conference on Population, Reproductive Health, and Economic Development hosted researchers to present results that have been supported through these partnerships, as well as through other sources. The conference highlighted evidence that contributes to a better understanding of the relationships among women’s and children’s health, access to health care, and economic well-being, including education and employment, providing insight relevant to achieving the SDGs.
-
June 2015Journal Article
An Assessment of Childbearing Preferences in Northern Malawi
This study investigates prospective fertility intentions in terms of their temporal stability, intensity, degree of spousal agreement, and association with future childbearing in northern Malawi.
-
April 2015Journal Article
HIV Testing, Behavior Change, and the Transition to Adulthood in Malawi
In this article we use the Marriage Transitions in Malawi (MTM) data set, a panel study of initially never married young women and men in central Malawi, to evaluate how, if at all, VCT influences behaviors of young people.
-
April 2015Journal Article
Health Outcomes for Children Born to Teen Mothers in Cape Town, South Africa
This article analyzes whether children born to teen mothers in Cape Town, South Africa, are disadvantaged in terms of their health outcomes because their mother is a teen.
-
March 2015Journal Article
Adequately Diversified Dietary Intake and Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation during Pregnancy Is Associated with Reduced Occurrence of Symptoms Suggestive of Pre-Eclampsia or Eclampsia in Indian Women
We examined the association between adequately diversified dietary intake, iron and folic acid supplementation during pregnancy and symptoms suggestive of PE or E in Indian women.
-
March 2015Report
Reproductive Rights As Economic Empowerment for Women and Girls
On March 17, 2015, PRB hosted a parallel event during the 59th annual UN Commission on the Status of Women.
-
March 2015Journal Article
Poverty, Gender, and Fertility in Rural Kenya
This article is based on two studies in rural villages in Western Province, Kenya in 1988 and 2011. In 1988, this province had the highest fertility level in the country. By 2011, fertility had fallen, but remained high in the national context. The analysis explores the interaction of poverty and gender relations in order to understand this.
-
March 2015Journal Article
India’s Struggle Against Malnutrition – Is the ICDS Program the Answer?
Using DHS data from 2005 to 2006 on child-level participation in ICDS, the author assesses the impact of its flagship supplementary nutrition program on children’s physical growth.
-
February 2015Dissertation
Intrahousehold Productive Inefficiency in Burkina Faso: Can Experimental Inefficiency Measures Explain Differences in Household Income?
Conducting an artefactual experiment in which married individuals make several sets of dichotomous choices between payments given to their spouses and payments given to themselves, households where either spouse equivalently values the spouse’s earnings and her own earnings have a significantly higher conditional income than the remaining households.
-
February 2015Working Paper
What happens once the intervention ends? The medium-term impacts of a cash transfer programme in Malawi
This report evaluates the five year impacts of the Zomba Cash Transfer Programme (ZCTP) in Zomba, Malawi. The ZCTP took place for two years during 2008-2009, and involved giving cash transfers, both conditional on schooling and unconditionally, to initially never-married 13-22 year old young women. The Schooling, Income and Health Risk (SIHR) study was designed to evaluate the impacts of the cash transfer programme on a variety of outcomes ranging from education to health to sexual behavior.
-
February 2015Report
Reproductive Health and Economic Well-Being in East Africa
We researched how investments in women’s and children’s health contribute to economic development. The research focuses on sub-Saharan Africa with an emphasis on including researchers and institutions from the continent as partners. One of the aims is to generate research findings that could be translated into program and policy recommendations for near-term use.
-
2015Journal Article
How Economic Empowerment Reduces Women’s Reproductive Health Vulnerability in Tanzania
This article uses data from northern Tanzania to analyze how economic empowerment helps women reduce their reproductive health (RH) vulnerability. It analyzes the effect of women’s employment and economic contribution to their household on health care use at three phases in the reproductive cycle: before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and at child birth.
-
January 2015Journal Article
Fertility Decline and Child Schooling in Urban Settings of Burkina Faso
We studied the impact of family size on children’s schooling in Ouagadougou (capital of Burkina Faso), using a better measure of household budget constraints and taking into account the simultaneity of fertility and schooling decisions. We find a new negative effect of sibship size on the level of schooling achieved by children–one that grows stronger as they progress through the educational system.
-
January 2015Journal Article
Perception of HIV risk and the quantity and quality of children: the case of rural Malawi
This study introduces individual HIV risk perceptions, as a predictor of mortality, into a quality (Q) – quantity (N) investment model. In this model, higher maternal mortality predicts lower N, while higher child mortality predicts lower Q. Thus, the two effects together make likely negative associations between HIV and both Q and N.
-
2015Working Paper
Contraceptive Use and Birth Intervals
We develop a model linking contraceptive efficiency to birth spacing decisions that incorporates the costs and benefits of child-rearing on the potential mother, as well as the stochastic process surrounding human reproduction.
-
January 2015Journal Article
Demand and Unmet Need to Space Births in Rwanda: A Two-Step Analysis of Determinants
Because the interval between births has a strong effect on infant and maternal morbidity and mortality and because long intervals lead to a further fertility decline, this study seeks to identify the barriers to the use of contraceptives by women who want to space births.
-
January 2015Journal Article
Income Transfers and Maternal Health: Evidence from a National Randomized Social Cash Transfer Program in Zambia
We studied the impact of Zambia’s Child Grant Program on a range of maternal health utilization outcomes using a randomized design and difference-in-differences multivariate regression from data collected over 24 months from 2010 to 2012. Results indicate that while there are no measurable program impacts among the main sample, there are heterogeneous impacts on skilled attendance at birth among a sample of women residing in households having better access to maternal health services.
-
January 2015Journal Article
Environmental regulations on air pollution in China and their impact on infant mortality
This study explores the impact of environmental regulations in China on infant mortality. In 1998, the Chinese government imposed stringent air pollution regulations, in one of the first large-scale regulatory attempts in a developing country. We find that the infant mortality rate fell by 20 percent in the treatment cities designated as “Two Control Zones.”
-
January 2015Working Paper
The Demography of the Labor Force in Emerging Markets
This paper discusses how demographic changes are affecting the labor force in emerging markets. As will be shown below, the demographic situation in emerging markets is rapidly changing.
-
January 2015Journal Article
Early Childbearing, Human Capital Attainment, and Mortality Risk: Evidence From a Longitudinal Demographic Surveillance Area in Rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Using a rich longitudinal dataset, we examine the relationship between teen fertility and both subsequent educational outcomes and HIV related mortality risk in rural South Africa.
-
January 2015Report
Fertility and Poverty in Western and Coast Villages of Kenya
The Fertility and Poverty project examined fertility changes in Western and Coast Regions over a 20-year period (1988-2011). Initially, the fertility level was very high in Western and relatively low in Coast; while a substantial decline followed by a stall took place in Western, while in Coast only a modest decline has taken place. Both regions are now in the upper end of the fertility range. These two regions provide insights into regional variations in the Kenyan fertility stall.
-
December 2014Working Paper
The Impact of Early Childbearing on Schooling and Cognitive Skills Among Young Women in Madagascar
Using a panel survey designed to capture the transition from adolescence to early adulthood, we analyze whether teenage pregnancy contributes to lower school attainment and cognitive skills among young women in Madagascar. We address the endogeneity between fertility and education decisions by instrumenting early pregnancy with the young woman’s access to condoms at the community level, and her exposure to condoms since she was 15 years old.
-
December 2014Journal Article
Disease and Development Revisited
Allowing for conditional convergence, exogenous improvements in health due to technical advances associated with the epidemiological transition appear to have increased income levels.
-
November 2014Working Paper
Female Labor Market Opportunities, Household Decision-Making Power, and Domestic Violence: Evidence from the Bangladesh Garment Industry
This paper examines the effects of increased employment opportunities on women’s decision-making power, the likelihood that women experience domestic violence, and investments in children’s education. Using four waves of the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), I estimate the impact of increased employment opportunities for women using a difference-in-difference specification that exploits spatial variation in factory location and the timing of trade liberalization.
-
August 2014Journal Article
Does Abolishing User Fees Lead to Improved Health Status? Evidence from Post-Apartheid South Africa
Whether user fees for health services should be charged or abolished for the poor has recently been debated. This study examines the impact on child health status of removing user fees in South Africa.
-
July 2014Journal Article
Fertility and Household Consumption Expenditure in Ethiopia: A Study in the Amhara Region
The purpose of this paper is to document the effect of the number of children on the consumption expenditure of Ethiopian households.
-
June 2014Report
Communicating Research to Policymakers: Researchers’ Experiences
Using evidence to inform decisions is essential for good policymaking and program design, given that limited resources require decisionmakers to allocate budgets effectively. But many researchers continue to encounter challenges in sharing their research findings with policymakers.
-
June 2014Interview
The Effects of Youth Population Growth on Sub-Saharan Economics, Interview With David Lam
David Lam discussed the effects of youth population growth on sub-Saharan African economics.
-
June 2014Working Paper
Ungrateful children: migration intensity and remittances in Nepal
Poverty has declined dramatically in Nepal since the end of the conflict. The sharp increase in revenues primarily comes from remittances. From a household’s perspective, choosing the appropriate number of migrants is crucial: they must trade-off the direct cost and loss of local income earners versus the potential remittances. We build a standard game theory model of remittances to emphasize two effects of the number of migrants on the total remittances received that go in opposite directions.
-
June 2014Interview
The Influence of Demographic Transitions on Economic Development in Brazil, Interview With Ernesto Amaral
Ernesto Amaral discussed the influence of demographic transition on economic development in Brazil.
-
May 2014Interview
An Analysis of the Links Between Family Structure, Poverty, and Child Labor
Jean-François Kobiané and Moussa Bougma discussed their analyses of the links between family structure, poverty, and child labor in Africa.
-
March 2014Journal Article
Fertility and Schooling in Ouagadougou: The Role of Family Networks
Drawing on an original dataset (Ouagadougou Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems, Demtrend 2012 retrospective survey), this study uses logistic regression models to study the combined effect of family networks and number of siblings on schooling of children in suburban districts of Ouagadougou.
-
January 2014Report
Appendix C: List of References (PopPov Project Outputs)
As part of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s initiative to enhance research and policy communication in population, reproductive health, and economic development, the foundation has partnered with institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, France, and Africa to strengthen evidence on how population and reproductive health affect economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. This Appendix is part of the report “Investigating Elements of a Population, Poverty, and Reproductive Health Research Agenda, ”available at poppov.org.
-
2014Working Paper
Risk Sharing and Internal Migration
This study examines how internal migration has affected informal risk sharing in Tanzania, where more than half of the population in rural areas has migrated from their home communities.
-
2014Working Paper
The Economic Approach to Fertility: A Causal Mediation Analysis
This study develops an economic fertility model, which explicitly incorporates both the costs of childrearing and contraception behavior.
-
2014Journal Article
Household Bargaining and Excess Fertility: An Experimental Study in Zambia
We posit that household decisionmaking over fertility is characterized by moral hazard since most contraception can only be perfectly observed by the woman. Our researched used an experiment in Zambia that varied whether women were given access to contraceptives alone or with their husbands.
-
2014Working Paper
Household Responses to Information on Child Nutrition: Experimental Evidence From Malawi
Incorrect knowledge of the health production function may lead to inefficient household choices, and thereby to sub-optimal health. This paper studies the effects of a randomized intervention in rural Malawi which, over a six-month period, provided mothers of young infants with information on child nutrition without supplying any monetary or in-kind resources.
-
2014Journal Article
Number, Age Composition, and School Achievements of Siblings in Two African Capital Cities
This paper uses biographical data from Dakar and Yaoundé, two large African cities, to study the link between number of siblings and school attainment. The data describe all fertility events experienced by parents and the number of siblings of each child over time.
-
January 2014Interview
Véronique Filippi on Severe Obstetric Complications in Burkina Faso
Kate Belohlav, research associate at PRB, interviewed professor Véronique Filippi about her research on severe obstetric complications in Burkina Faso.
-
2014Journal Article
Implementing ‘Insider’ Ethnography: Lessons From the Public Conversations About HIV/AIDS Project in Rural South Africa
We describe a research methodology in which “insider” community members work with “outsider” investigators as participant observers to document everyday conversations taking place in public settings in their communities. Our study took place in a resource-poor area of rural South Africa and focused on HIV/AIDS.
-
January 2014Dissertation
Fertility and Household Poverty in Kenya: A Comparative Analysis of Coast and Western Provinces
The present study examines the relationship between household poverty and fertility in Coast and Western provinces using both quantitative and qualitative data. Specifically, the study sought to; 1. Estimate levels and trends of fertility in Coast and Western provinces by level of household poverty 2. Test whether the relationship between household poverty status and fertility depends on the context and 3. Test whether the relationship between household poverty and fertility is an artifact of measurement.
-
2014Working Paper
Parental Health Shocks, Child Labor, and Educational Outcomes: Evidence From Tanzania
Prior literature provides limited empirical evidence on the impact of parental illness on child labor and schooling outcomes. This paper examines this relationship using panel data from Tanzania. Specifically, we study if parental illness causes households to reallocate children’s time from school to work.
-
January 2014Working Paper
Nutrition, Information, and Household Behavior: Experimental Evidence From Malawi
This paper studies the effects of a randomized intervention in rural Malawi which, over a six-month period, provided mothers of young infants with information on child nutrition without supplying any monetary or in-kind resources.
-
2014Working Paper
Rewarding Safer Sex: Conditional Cash Transfers for HIV/STI Prevention
This article discusses the findings of the Rewarding Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention and Control in Tanzania (RESPECT) study, a randomized controlled trial testing the hypothesis that a system of rapid feedback and positive reinforcement that uses cash as the primary incentive can be used to reduce risky sexual activity among young people who are at high risk of HIV infection.
-
2014Journal Article
Family Planning, Growth, Income Distribution: Graph-Theoretic Path Analysis of Rwanda
This paper explores macroeconomic links among family planning, human capital, and economic growth in Rwanda.
-
2014Journal Article
Variations in Desired Family Size and Excess Fertility in East Africa
This contribution studies the variation in desired family size and excess fertility in four East African countries (Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda) by analyzing the combined impact of wealth, education, religious affiliation, and place of residence.
-
January 2014Report
Appendix B: Brief Description of PopPov Projects
As part of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s initiative to enhance research and policy communication in population, reproductive health, and economic development, the foundation has partnered with institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, France, and Africa to strengthen evidence on how population and reproductive health affect economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. This Appendix is part of the report “Investigating Elements of a Population, Poverty, and Reproductive Health Research Agenda,” available at poppov.org.
-
2014Working Paper
Coping With Risk: The Effects of Shocks on Reproductive Health and Transactional Sex in Rural Tanzania
This paper uses data from a panel of women in rural Tanzania whose primary occupation is agriculture to study transactional sex as a risk-coping mechanism and as a contributor to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
-
2014Journal Article
The Effects of Population Dynamics on Economic Growth in Nigeria
The study investigated the effects of population dynamics on the economic growth in Nigeria from 1980 to 2010 by specifically determining the effects of fertility and infant mortality rates on the economic growth.
-
2014Working Paper
Bargaining Power and Biofortification: The Role of Gender in Adoption of Orange Sweet Potato in Uganda
We examine the role of gender in adoption and diffusion of orange sweet potato, a biofortified staple food crop being promoted as a strategy to increase dietary intakes of vitamin A among young children and adult women in Uganda.
-
2014Journal Article
Costs and Consequences of Abortions to Women and Their Households: A Cross-Sectional Study in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Little is known about the costs and consequences of abortions to women and their households. Our aim was to study both costs and consequences of induced and spontaneous abortions and complications. We carried out a cross-sectional study between February and September 2012 in Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso.
-
January 2014Working Paper
Assessing the Impact of Social Grants on Inequality: A South African Case Study
The democratic government in South Africa has developed a system of social grants to combat the high levels of poverty and inequality inherited from the apartheid regime. This South African case study allows for a side-by-side assessment of income inequality decomposition techniques.
-
January 2014Journal Article
Does Duration of Spousal Caregiving Affect Risk of Depression Onset?
This research assessed the association of current and long-term spousal caregiving with risk of depression in a nationally (US) representative sample of older adults. Current spousal caregiving significantly predicted onset of depression; the association was not exacerbated by longer duration of caregiving.
-
2014Journal Article
Income Shocks and HIV in Africa
We examine how variation in local economic conditions has shaped the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Using data from over 200,000 individuals across 19 countries, we match biomarker data on individuals’ serostatus to information on local rainfall shocks, a large source of income variation for rural households.
-
2014Dissertation
Essays on Demographic Changes, Health, and Economic Development
Dans un contexte de changements démographiques, ma thèse de doctorat vise à clarifier deux questions principales : i)comment évaluer le progrès des nations lorsque les populations diffèrent en taille, longévité et répartition des revenus ? et ii)quels sont les effets de la fécondité et de la mortalité sur la croissance économique en Afrique subsaharienne ? La première partie (chapitres 1 et 2) élucide la manière dont les changements en taille de la population, en longévité et en répartition des revenus pourraient être socialement évalués, tandis que la seconde partie (chapitre 3) fournit un cadre de politique publique et des éclairages sur les moyens de réaliser une dividende démographique dans le contexte de l’Afrique subsaharienne.
-
January 2014Interview
Jotham Musinguzi Interview With Susan Rich on the PopPov Initiative
At the 2014 PopPov Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, Susan Rich, vice president of International Programs at the Population Reference Bureau, interviewed Jotham Musinguzi, regional director of the Partners in Population and Development Africa Regional Office.
-
2014Dissertation
Does Trade Reduce Infant Mortality? Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa
This study estimates the effects of a large-scale trade policy shift on a development indicator like infant mortality, using the recent experience of the African Growth and Opportunity Act affecting sub-Saharan Africa.
-
2014Journal Article
Mothers More Altruistic Than Fathers, But Only When Bearing Responsibility Alone: Evidence From Parental Choice Experiments in Tanzania
Because fathers face uncertainty about the relation to their children, the asymmetric parental altruism hypothesis predicts mothers to provide a higher share of parental care than fathers. We tested this hypothesis using parental choice experiments in rural Tanzania, in which fathers and mothers could choose between an outcome that benefited themselves and an outcome that benefited their children.
-
2014Journal Article
Do Girls Have a Nutritional Disadvantage Compared with Boys? Statistical Models of Breastfeeding and Food Consumption Inequalities Among Indian Siblings
India is the only nation where girls have greater risks of under-5 mortality than boys. We test whether female disadvantage in breastfeeding and food allocation accounts for gender disparities in mortality. Indian girls are breastfed for shorter periods than boys and consume less milk.
-
2014Working Paper
Social Insurance and the Marriage Market
Social insurance is often linked to marriage. I model how such a link affects the marriage market and provide evidence exploiting Sweden’s elimination of survivors insurance.
-
2014Working Paper
Postpartum Family Planning in Burkina Faso
This is a formative study aiming to identify the main barriers to the provision and uptake of quality postpartum family planning services at the supply, access, demand, and policy levels in Burkina Faso.
-
January 2014Report
Investigating Elements of a Population, Poverty, and Reproductive Health Research Agenda and Its Appendices
As part of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s PopPov initiative to enhance research and policy communication in population, reproductive health, and economic development, the foundation has partnered with institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, France, and Africa to strengthen evidence on how population and reproductive health affect economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Hewlett partners–the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), the Research Council of Norway (RCN), WOTRO Science for Global Development, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), l’Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), l’Agence française de développement (AFD), Institute for International Education (IIE), and the World Bank–have awarded research funding to more than 46 principal investigators and 49 Ph.D. candidates as of October 2012.
-
January 2014Report
Appendix A: Overview of PopPov Projects
As part of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s initiative to enhance research and policy communication in population, reproductive health, and economic development, the foundation has partnered with institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, France, and Africa to strengthen evidence on how population and reproductive health affect economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. This Appendix is part of the report “Investigating Elements of a Population, Poverty, and Reproductive Health Research Agenda,” available at poppov.org.
-
January 2014Working Paper
Poverty, Inequality, and Prices in Post-Apartheid South Africa
This paper aims to tell the story of the evolution of both money-metric and non-money-metric poverty and inequality in post-apartheid South Africa, and to assess the effect of prices on this story.
-
2014Dissertation
An Economic Analysis of Maternal Health Care in Zambia
This thesis investigates the utilization of maternal health care in Zambia, where despite being a signatory to the Safe Motherhood Initiative and Millennium Development Goals, which are aimed at improving maternal health, indicators of maternal health continue to perform poorly.
-
2014Working Paper
The Role of Paid Parental Leave in Reducing Women’s Career Interruptions: Evidence From Paid Leave Laws in California and New Jersey
This paper analyzes the effects of paid parental leave on birth-related interruptions in women’s labor-force participation in California and New Jersey. Paid-leave mandates have little impact on exits lasting longer than six months but substantially decrease the incidence of exits lasting less than six months. The effects are only present for mothers with less than a college degree who are less likely to have private paid leave.
-
2014Working Paper
Impact of a Youth-Targeted Reproductive Health Initiative in South Africa
In the early 2000s, the National Adolescent Friendly Clinic Initiative (NAFCI) aimed to reduce teen pregnancy in South Africa by eliminating physical and social barriers to reproductive health services. Based on interviews with stakeholders and a series of controls, I argue that geographic and timing variation of the NAFCI rollout led to a conditionally random increase in reproductive health knowledge and clinical access.
-
2014Working Paper
What Do Indian Children Drink When They Do Not Receive Water? Prevalence of Water and Alternative Beverage Consumption From the 2005-2006 Indian National Family Health Survey
Over 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water globally. However, little is known about what children drink when there is no clean water. We examined what Indian children who receive no water drink using data from the latest available India National Family and Health Survey.
-
January 2014Journal Article
Distance Decay and Persistent Health Care Disparities in South Africa
Access to health care is a particular concern given the important role of poor access in perpetuating poverty and inequality. South Africa’s apartheid history leaves large racial disparities in access despite post-apartheid health policy to increase the number of health facilities, even in remote rural areas. However, even when health services are provided free of charge, monetary and time costs of travel to a local clinic may pose a significant barrier for vulnerable segments of the population, leading to overall poorer health.
-
November 2013Report
Unmet Need and Demand for Smaller Families in Rwanda
Rwanda faces development challenges that strain economic and natural resources and potentially contribute to ethnic tensions. As recently as 2005, only one in 10 married women were using a modern method of contraception.
-
November 2013Report
Household Decisionmaking and Contraceptive Use in Zambia
Family planning services promote a wide range of health and socioeconomic benefits to women, men, and their families. Still, many barriers prevent women from using contraception. Despite efforts to increase awareness and improve access to these family planning services, unmet need for family planning and unwanted pregnancies remains high in many low- and middle-income countries, suggesting that other factors may be driving contraceptive use.
-
October 2013Dissertation
Family Planning, Fertility Reduction and Economic Development in Africa
The overall purpose of my research is to analyze the relationships and interactions between family planning and socio-economic outcomes at household and district level, so as to understand the pathways through which family planning affects socio-economic development.
-
August 2013Interview
Abiba Longwe: Reproductive Health and Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa
Abiba Longwe is a Ph.D. student in economics at Radboud University Nijmegen, and a participant in PRB’s 2013-2014 Policy Communication Fellows Program, funded by USAID through the IDEA project.
-
July 2013Journal Article
Migration and the Transition to Adulthood in Contemporary Malawi
This article investigates the relationship among major life events, household characteristics, and migration among adolescents and young adults in contemporary Malawi. Two main questions are investigated: What are the socioeconomic and demographic determinants of migration? And how do schooling, first marriage, and work relate to migration patterns?
-
May 2013Working Paper
Global Demographic Trends and Their Implications for Employment
This paper discussed global demographic trends with a focus on their implications for the size and rate of growth of the labor force.
-
May 2013Report
The Population and Poverty Research Initiative
As part of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s initiative to enhance research and policy communication in population, reproductive health, and economic development, the foundation has partnered with institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, France, and Africa to strengthen evidence on how population and reproductive health affect economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Under this PopPov initiative, Hewlett partners have awarded research funding to more than 50 principal investigators and 50 Ph.D. candidates.
-
April 2013Journal Article
Income Shocks and Adolescent Mental Health
We investigate the effects of a positive income shock on mental health among adolescent girls using evidence from a cash transfer experiment in Malawi.
-
January 2013Interview
Fertility and Poverty: The Role of Gender and Reproductive Health
In an interview at the Seventh Annual Conference on Population, Reproductive Health, and Economic Development in Oslo, Norway, researchers An-Magritt Jensen and Anne Khasakhala answered questions about their project on fertility and poverty in two areas of Kenya.
-
2013Working Paper
Madagascar Young Adult Transitions Survey
This report provides a preliminary descriptive analysis of the Madagascar Youth Transition Survey 2012–13, the last round of a cohort panel following children from around age 8 or 15 to their early 20s. This last round of the survey was designed to improve our understanding of the determinants and impacts of the major life transitions of young people in Madagascar.
-
2013Journal Article
Family Planning and Women’s and Children’s Health: Long-Term Consequences of an Outreach Program in Matlab, Bangladesh
We analyze the impact of an experimental maternal and child health and family planning program that was established in Matlab, Bangladesh, in 1977. Village data from 1974, 1982, and 1996 suggest that program villages experienced a decline in fertility of about 17 percent. Household data from 1996 confirm that this decline in “surviving fertility” persisted for nearly two decades.
-
2013Working Paper
How Subjective Beliefs About HIV Infection Affect Life-Cycle Fertility: Evidence From Rural Malawi
This paper studies the effect of subjective beliefs about HIV infection on fertility decisions in a context of high HIV prevalence and simulates the impact of different policy interventions, such as HIV testing programs and prevention of mother-to-child transmission, on fertility and child mortality.
-
January 2013Journal Article
Health and Social Support Among Women Treated for Abortion Complications in Western Uganda
In this study, we performed an assessment of the relationship between abortion complications, Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and social support among women in Uganda. We found that abortion complications are associated with diminished HRQoL and the magnitude of the association depends on social support.
-
January 2013Journal Article
Communication, Knowledge, Social Network and Family Planning Utilization Among Couples in Mwanza, Tanzania
This study examines factors which influence the use of family planning in rural Tanzania, where utilization is low and unmet need for family planning is high. The results show significant associations between family planning utilization and wealth, social networks, knowledge and communication among spouses.
-
2013Journal Article
What Has High Fertility Got to Do With the Low Birth Weight Problem in Africa?
There has been much concern about adverse individual and societal consequences of high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa. One concern is that children of high birth orders may have low birth weight. However, the evidence for such an effect is not strong.
-
2013Journal Article
The Long-Term Economic Impact of Severe Obstetric Complications for Women and Their Children in Burkina Faso
This study investigates the long-term economic impact of severe obstetric complications for women and their children in Burkina Faso, focusing on measures of food security, expenditures, and related quality of life measures. It uses a hospital-based cohort, first visited in 2004/2005 and followed up four years later.
-
January 2013Journal Article
Population Dynamics and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa
The study examines the effect of population dynamics (mortality and fertility) on economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa from 1970 to 2005, using the five year average.
-
2013Working Paper
The Decision to Invest in Child Quality Over Quantity: Household Size and Household Investment in Education in Vietnam
During Vietnam’s two decades of rapid economic growth, its fertility rate has fallen sharply at the same time that its educational attainment has risen rapidly. This paper investigates whether the micro-level evidence supports the hypothesis that Vietnamese parents are in fact making a trade-off between quantity and quality of children.
-
2013Working Paper
Income Shocks, Contraceptive Use, and Timing of Fertility
This paper examines the relationship between household income shocks and fertility decisions. Using panel data from Tanzania, we estimate the impact of agricultural shocks on contraception use, pregnancy, and the likelihood of childbirth.
-
2013Working Paper
Number and Spacing of Children and Women’s Employment in Africa
We analyze the effects of the number of recent births and the spacing between the last two children on women’s labor force participation in non-agricultural employment in Africa.
-
January 2013Interview
Fertility Outcomes and the Roles of Children in Household Risk-Management Strategies in Rural West Africa: The Cases of Senegal and Benin
Researcher Anne Kielland spoke with PRB staff about her project on the roles of children in household risk-management strategies in rural Senegal and Benin.
-
January 2013Journal Article
Reproductive health laws and fertility decline in Ghana
An unresolved debate in demography concerns the causal sequence between the supply of contraception and the demand for smaller families in fertility decline. Through a mixed-methods approach, we explored the effect of a sudden increase in access to legal abortion on subsequent fertility decline when Ghana’s criminal code was amended in 1985.
-
January 2013Interview
Jan Monteverde Haakonsen on RCN’s ECONPOP
At the 2013 PopPov Conference in Oslo, Norway, PRB staff interviewed Jan Monteverde Haakonsen, special adviser in the Department of Cooperation and Development Research at the Research Council of Norway (RCN) about RCN’s role in the PopPov research initiative.
-
January 2013Journal Article
The Impact of Family Planning on Primary School Enrolment in Sub-national Areas within 25 African Countries
We study how the availability and use of family planning services in African countries influences the family planning situation of households and through this the educational participation of young children.
-
2013Journal Article
Age, Education, and Earnings in the Course of Brazilian Development: Does Composition Matter?
Shifts in the age distribution of the working-age population have been studied in relation to the effect of the baby-boom generation on the earnings of different cohorts in the U.S., but little attention has been paid to Asia and Latin America. In this analysis, we estimate the impact of the changing relative size of the adult male population on the earnings of employed men living in 502 Brazilian local labor markets between 1970 and 2000.
-
January 2013Journal Article
Family Planning Decisions, Perceptions, and Gender Dynamics Among Couples in Mwanza, Tanzania: A Qualitative Study
Using qualitative methods, this study explores family planning (FP) decisions, perceptions and gender dynamics among couples in Mwanza region of Tanzania. Several themes emerged, including the risks and costs of using family planning, male involvement, gender relations and communications, and differences between urban and rural residents.
-
2013Journal Article
Too Poor to Live? A Case Study of Vulnerability and Maternal Mortality in Burkina Faso
This paper examines the concept of vulnerability in the context of maternal morbidity and mortality in Burkina Faso, an impoverished country in West Africa. Drawing on a longitudinal cohort study into the consequences of life-threatening or “near-miss” obstetric complications, we provide an in-depth case study of one woman’s experience of such morbidity and its aftermath.
-
2013Journal Article
Delivery Care in Tanzania: A Comparative Analysis of Use and Preferences
Maternal mortality remains high because of low use of skilled delivery care, but little is known about women’s preferences. This study combines data from a survey and a choice experiment in Tanzania to compare women’s preferences with real choices of delivery care.
-
2013Journal Article
Reproductive Preferences and Contraceptive Use: A Comparison of Monogamous and Polygamous Couples in Northern Malawi
Men’s role in reproductive decisionmaking is important. Several studies have argued that fertility preferences differ between polygamous and monogamous unions. Data from the Demographic Surveillance Site in Karonga District in northern Malawi about the fertility preferences and contraceptive use of husbands and wives were investigated. The research offers insight into the reproductive decisionmaking process of polygamous couples.
-
2013Journal Article
HIV Status and Labor Market Participation in South Africa
We use econometric methods based on the propensity score to estimate the causal effect of HIV status on employment outcomes in South Africa. We provide the first nationally representative estimates of the impact of HIV status on employment outcomes for southern Africa.
-
2013Dissertation
The Effects of Household and Community-Based Interventions: Evidence From Indonesia
Low birth weight is a global health problem, especially in developing countries. This research evaluates policies that target maternal and children’s health in low-resource settings.
-
2013Working Paper
Child Height After a Natural Disaster
The impact of unanticipated shocks on health in very early life and their implications for health in later life is of substantial interest to health and population scientists. This study investigates the impact of exposure to a large-scale natural disaster on the linear growth of young children.
-
2013Journal Article
The Effect of Fertility Reduction on Economic Growth
In the context of a high-fertility developing country, how much higher would income per capita be if the fertility rate were to fall by a specified amount? Over the last half-century, consensus has shifted from fertility declines having strong effects, to their not being very important, and recently back toward assigning them some significance.
-
2013Journal Article
Fertility and Maternal Hours of Work in Ethiopia: A Case Study in the Amhara Region
Theoretical evidence suggests that mothers work fewer hours with a large number of young children and more hours when children are adults. Using data from a household sample survey of rural and urban married women with at least two live children, this study documents the maternal hours of work affected by the number of children. Generally, our results contradict traditional theory and show that Ethiopian mothers with large numbers of young children work longer.
-
2013Working Paper
Life Quantity, Life Quality, and Longevity: An Intertemporal Social Evaluation Framework
The evaluation of development processes and of public policies often involves comparisons of social states in which populations differ in size and longevity. This paper explores the use of axiomatic and welfarist principles to assess social welfare in that framework.
-
2013Journal Article
Management of Non-Marital Fertility in Two South African Communities
In this analysis, we draw on qualitative data to examine the management of nonmarital fertility among young women in two rural, black communities in two provinces of South Africa: KwaZulu–Natal and Mpumalanga. While the two communities share a history of economic and social disadvantage and limited access to the labor market, there are distinctive features in the management of nonmarital fertility.
-
2013Working Paper
Distance As a Barrier to Health Care Access in South Africa
Poor access to health care perpetuates poverty and inequality. South Africa’s apartheid history leaves large racial disparities in access. Using new data from the first nationally representative panel survey in South Africa together with data from the Department of Health, we investigate the role of distance to the nearest facility on patterns of health care use.
-
2013Journal Article
The Impact of Early Childbearing on Schooling and Cognitive Skills Among Young Women in Madagascar
Female secondary school attendance has recently increased in sub-Saharan Africa; however, the higher likelihood of attending school after puberty has put girls at risk of becoming pregnant while attending school. Using a panel survey designed to capture the transition from adolescence to early adulthood, we analyze whether teenage pregnancy contributes to lower school attainment and cognitive skills among young women in Madagascar.
-
2013Journal Article
Implications of China’s Future Bride Shortage for the Geographical Distribution and Social Protection Needs of Never-Married Men
Because sex ratios at birth have risen sharply in China in recent decades, an increasing proportion of men will be unable to find a bride, and will face old age without the support of a wife and children. We project the proportions of never-married men and their geographical distribution in China in the coming decades.
-
2013Working Paper
Human Trafficking and Regulating Prostitution
We study human trafficking in a marriage market model of prostitution. We ask if regulation can eradicate trafficking and restore the outcome that would arise in an unregulated market without traffickers.
-
2012Working Paper
Impacts of School-Based HIV Education on Reported Behavior and Knowledge of Adolescent Girls
This paper reports on a randomized field experiment to study how teenage girls in Cameroon respond to different school-based HIV education programs. This experiment was specifically designed to test whether the type of messenger as well as the type of information affect how much information is retained, how much information is transmitted to peers, and how reported behavior changes among girls and their friends.
-
November 2012Dissertation
How Subjective Beliefs about HIV Infection Affect Life-Cycle Fertility: Evidence from Rural Malawi
In this paper, I study the effect of subjective beliefs about HIV infection on fertility decisions in a context of high HIV prevalence and evaluate the impact of different policy interventions, such as HIV testing programs and prevention of mother-to-child transmission, on fertility and child mortality.
-
October 2012Journal Article
Current and long-term spousal caregiving and onset of cardiovascular disease
This paper seeks to estimate the association between spousal caregiving and incident cardiovascular disease in older Americans. Spousal caregiving independently predicted risk of CVD in a large sample of US adults. There was significant evidence that the effect for long-term care givers differs for non-whites and white.
-
September 2012Report
Costs of Induced Abortion and Cost-Effectiveness of Universal Access to Modern Contraceptives in Uganda
Uganda is the third fastest-growing country in the world. Recent surveys indicate that only 31 percent of Ugandan women of reproductive age who want to use contraceptives report that they are indeed using a modern effective method. To respond to the high level of unmet need, the Ugandan government has begun to include family planning in its health program.
-
August 2012Report
The Effects of an Economic Crisis on Contraceptive Use
Couples receive many health and socioeconomic benefits from having fewer children, and having access to modern contraception helps them to have the number of children they desire. To improve couples’ access to modern contraception, governments and international organizations in many low-income countries distribute contraceptives either at subsidized prices or for free.
-
August 2012Report
Beyond Maternal Mortality: Surviving an Obstetric Complication in Burkina Faso
For many women, emergency obstetric care is a catastrophic expenditure that may potentially contribute to a cycle of poverty and poor health. This brief summarizes findings from one study that qualitatively examines how some women in Burkina Faso fared after such “near miss” experiences.
-
May 2012Interview
Joseph Babigumira: Health Economics of Unsafe Induced Abortion in Uganda
In this interview, PopPov researcher Joseph Babigumira of the University of Washington shares research findings on abortions in Uganda, which are a consequence of the high prevalence of unintended pregnancies, a result of the high level of unmet need for contraception.
-
May 2012Report
Reproductive Health and Economic Development: What Connections Should We Focus On?
Reproductive health, defined as the use of effective contraception, use of health care during pregnancy and childbirth, and health care for infants, is a critical component of human capital. Investments in reproductive health are linked to lower fertility and reduced maternal and child morbidity and mortality.
-
May 2012Interview
Poverty, Gender Inequities, and Sexual/Reproductive Health in Rural Tanzania
Researcher Will Dow describes his work related to the PopPov Network. His research focuses on health economics, international health, and economic demography.
-
April 2012Interview
Gervais Beninguisse: Poverty and Unmet Need in Reproductive Health of Youth in Central Africa
In this video interview, Gervais Beninguisse of IFORD Cameroon shares research findings on the extent of unmet needs in reproductive health of adolescents and youth in Central Africa and illustrates their links with poverty.
-
April 2012Report
Human Capital Consequences of Teenage Childbearing in South Africa
Women in South Africa have had fewer children on average since the 1970s, but the rate of teenage childbearing in South Africa has remained the same. Large numbers of young mothers are a cause for social concern in South Africa and other countries because of the adverse impact of teenage childbearing on the education and health of teen mothers and their children.
-
April 2012Journal Article
Spousal Caregiving and Incident Hypertension
This paper investigates the association between the risk of incident hypertension and spousal caregiving in a large, nationally representative sample of American older adults.
-
March 2012Interview
Alice Mesnard: Health Risks and Migration
In this video, Alice Mesnard of City University London describes her research on health risks and migration, a rarely studied topic despite their important consequences for the planning, targeting, and effectiveness of health policies.
-
March 2012Interview
Kelly Jones: Evaluating the Mexico City Policy: International Aid/Fertility in Ghana
In this video, PopPov researcher Kelly Jones of the International Food Policy Research Institute discusses research findings from Ghana that show how the Mexico City Policy had unintended consequences for induced abortion and unintended pregnancies, especially for the poorest and least educated.
-
February 2012Interview
Fred Sai: Reflections on Decades of Working Toward Family Planning Access and Rights
Fred Sai, former Ghanaian Presidential Advisor on Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS, has worked tirelessly for decades toward family planning and nutrition. He has held positions at FAO, United Nations University, IPPE, and The World Bank.
-
February 2012Interview
Pieter Hooimeijer: Rwanda’s High But Recently Declining Fertility
In this video, PopPov researcher Pieter Hooimeijer of Utrecht University shares research findings from Rwanda that show how reproductive health investments can break the cycle of decreasing agricultural productivity, high population growth, and increasing poverty, and discusses how high fertility has affected primary education for poorer children.
-
2012Journal Article
Human Capital Investment and the Gender Division of Labor in a Brawn-Based Economy
A model of human capital investment and activity choice is used to explain facts describing gender differentials in the levels and returns to human capital investments and occupational choice. Evidence from rural Bangladesh supports the model and the importance of the distribution of brawn.
-
2012Working Paper
Networks and Constraints on the Diffusion of a Biofortified Agricultural Technology: Evidence From a Partial Population Experiment
This paper examines the role of networks in the diffusion of a biofortified agricultural technology with potential economic and health benefits. The technology is the orange-fleshed sweet potato, which was bred to be dense in vitamin A and is higher yielding but more vulnerable to dry spells than are traditional staple sweet potato varieties. OSP was introduced in three districts in Uganda in order to fight vitamin A deficiency.
-
January 2012Journal Article
Simulating the Impact of Exogenous Food Price Shock on Agriculture and the Poor in Nigeria: Results from a Computable General Equilibrium Model
Motivated by the recent global economic crisis, this paper simulated the impact of a rise in the price of imported food on agriculture and household poverty in Nigeria using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) class of decomposable poverty measures on the 2006 social accounting matrix (SAM) of Nigeria and the updated 2004 Nigeria Living Standards Survey (NLSS) data.
-
2012Working Paper
Does Abolishing User Fees Lead to Improved Health Status? Evidence From Post-Apartheid South Africa
This study examines the impact of removing user fees on child health status in South Africa. We find that free health care improved the health status of boys but not of girls.
-
2012Working Paper
Do Health Care Providers Respond to Demand-Side Incentives? Evidence From Indonesia
This paper exploits the sub-district randomization of Indonesia’s household Conditional Cash Transfer program to analyze how the program affects the local health care market.
-
2012Working Paper
The Role of Education and Family Background in Marriage, Childbearing, and Labor Market Participation in Senegal
This paper examines the role of education and family background on age at marriage, age at first birth, and age at labor market entry for young women in Senegal using a rich individual-level survey conducted in 2003.
-
2012Journal Article
Potential Cost-Effectiveness of Universal Access to Modern Contraceptives in Uganda
Over two-thirds of women who need contraception in Uganda lack access to modern effective methods. This study was conducted to estimate the potential cost-effectiveness of achieving universal access to modern contraceptives in Uganda by implementing a hypothetical new contraceptive program from both societal and Ministry of Health perspectives.
-
2012Journal Article
Child Growth in Urban Deprived Settings: Does Household Poverty Status Matter? At Which Stage of Child Development?
This paper uses longitudinal data from two informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya, to examine patterns of child growth and how these are affected by four different dimensions of poverty at the household level.
-
2012Journal Article
When Urban Taps Run Dry: Sachet Water Consumption and Health Effects in Low-Income Neighborhoods of Accra, Ghana
In Accra, Ghana, municipal water is rationed to meet demand, and the gap in water services is increasingly being filled by private water vendors selling packaged “sachet” water.
-
2012Dissertation
The Persistent Effects of in Utero Nutrition Shocks Over the Life Cycle: Evidence From Fasting During Ramadan in Indonesia
Every year Muslims fast during the Islamic month of Ramadan. This paper uses longitudinal data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey to study the effects of in utero exposure to Ramadan on multiple outcomes, including adult labor supply, over the life cycle.
-
2012Journal Article
Sexual and Reproductive Health in Accra, Ghana
To describe sexual and reproductive health among women in Accra and explore the burden of sexual and reproductive ill health among this urban population, researchers designed a cross-sectional study analyzing data from various studies.
-
2012Working Paper
An Application of Propensity Score Matching to Assess the Impact of Unintended Childbearing on Children’s Growth in Northern Malawi
We analyze data on fertility intentions and children’s anthropometric measures collected as part of an ongoing Demographic Surveillance Site (DSS) in Karonga District in northern Malawi, and we apply propensity score matching to assess the effect of “unintendedness” on child growth.
-
2012Journal Article
Incentivising Safe Sex: A Randomised Trial of Conditional Cash Transfers for HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention in Rural Tanzania
The authors evaluated the use of conditional cash transfers as an HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention strategy to incentivize safe sex. Research was conducted in 10 villages in rural southwestern Tanzania.
-
2012Working Paper
Son Preference, Number of Children, Education, and Occupational Choice in Rural Nepal
A unique family survey was conducted in Nepal to investigate the economic consequences of having a first-born girl. Women have more children, but we find no causal effect of number of children on economic outcomes. But independently of the number of children there is a positive effect on boys’ education of having a first born sister, who presumably takes care of household work so the boys can focus on school.
-
2012Journal Article
Free Education in Rwanda: Just One Step Toward Reducing Gender and Sibling Inequalities
In 2003, Rwanda introduced free education as part of government policy to improve school enrollment and particularly the attendance of deprived children. Our analysis, using data from the 2000 and 2005 Integrated Household Living Conditions Surveys, shows that although the policy has been very successful, the objective has not been achieved.
-
2012Dissertation
Causes and Consequences of Fertility in the U.S. and Ghana: A Spatial Econometric Approach
This dissertation examines the causes of fertility variations in Ghana and the U.S., as well as the impacts of family size on children in Ghana.
-
2012Journal Article
Fertility Regulation in an Economic Crisis
Using longitudinal survey data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey, we exploit dramatic variation in prices and incomes induced by the economic crisis in the late 1990s to pin down the effect of contraceptive availability and costs as well as use and method choice. Contraceptive costs and family resources have a very small impact on contraceptive use and method.
-
2012Journal Article
Tanzanian Couples’ Perspectives on Gender Equity, Relationship Power, and Intimate Partner Violence: Findings From the RESPECT Study
Intimate partner violence is widely prevalent in Tanzania. We used data from the RESPECT study to examine the relationship between couples’ attitudes about intimate partner violence, relationship power, sexual decisionmaking, concordance on these issues, and women’s reports of violence over 12 months.
-
2012Journal Article
‘This year I will not put her to work’: The Production/Reproduction Nexus in Burkina Faso
Global advocacy campaigns increasingly highlight the negative impact of reproductive morbidity on economic productivity and development in order to justify donor investment in maternal health. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from Burkina Faso, this paper analyses the dynamic and sometimes contradictory relationship between women’s work and reproductive health in impoverished communities.
-
2012Working Paper
Consequences of Withdrawal: Free Condoms and Birth Rates in the Philippines
This paper presents new evidence on the role of subsidized contraceptives in influencing fertility behavior. It finds that birth rates were responsive to both broad and transitory changes in public contraceptive supply.
-
January 2012Report
The Economics of Reproductive Health in Accra, Ghana
Reproductive health services can help women avoid unplanned births, unsafe abortions, and pregnancy-related disabilities. Modern contraception gives couples a safe and reliable way to have the number of children they want. With smaller families, women spend less time dealing with pregnancy and child care and have more time for work outside the home.
-
January 2012Journal Article
Income and Health in Accra, Ghana: Results from a Time Use and Health Study
This paper uses newly collected household survey data from Accra, Ghana, to investigate whether incomes affect acute and chronic health outcomes in settings that can be considered representative for the large and rapidly growing urban centers of sub-Saharan Africa.
-
2012Journal Article
Fertility Intentions and Use of Contraception Among Monogamous Couples in Northern Malawi in the Context of HIV Testing: A Cross-Sectional Analysis
Knowledge of HIV status may influence fertility desires of married men and women. A cross-sectional analysis of interview data from men and women in monogamous marriages in northern Malawi found that knowledge of HIV-positive status is associated with an increase in the reported desire to cease childbearing but there was limited evidence that this desire led to higher use of contraception.
-
2012Working Paper
Fertility and Well-Being Effects of an Aggressive Family Planning Policy in Peru in the 1990s: A Reweighting Estimator With a Contaminated Treatment Group Approach
In the mid-1990’s Peru initiated an aggressive family planning program to reduce poverty. Female sterilization was an official element of the program, and anecdotal evidence suggests that health workers were given large sterilization quotas and reportedly used bribes, coercion, and even force to meet them. Data show a large increase in sterilizations during the program.
-
2012Journal Article
Mortality After ‘Near-Miss’ Obstetric Complications in Burkina Faso: Medical, Social, and Health-Care Factors
To what extent does surviving a near-miss obstetric complication mean that a maternal death has actually been averted? Our aim was to investigate maternal mortality in the four years after hospital discharge following a near-miss complication in Burkina Faso.
-
2012Journal Article
Effect of a Cash Transfer Programme for Schooling on Prevalence of HIV and Herpes Simplex Type 2 in Malawi: A Cluster Randomised Trial
Lack of education and an economic dependence on men are often suggested as important risk factors for HIV infection in women. We assessed the efficacy of a cash transfer program to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections in young women.
-
2012Working Paper
Microeconomic Foundations of the Demographic Dividend
The potential economic returns to the demographic transition are high. In this paper, we analyze the demographic transition at the household level, investigating the distributional patterns of the economic and welfare benefits associated with the demographic transition across socioeconomic groups within countries and over time.
-
2012Journal Article
Family Planning Outcomes and Primary School Attendance in Sub-Saharan Africa
This study examines the relationship between women’s family planning outcomes and primary school enrollment among their 8-to-11-year-old children. We analyze household-level and wider-context-level data for 103,000 children in 30 sub-Saharan African countries. Negative associations with school enrollment are found for those who have short preceding or succeeding birth intervals, a young sibling, or a mother who is pregnant.
-
January 2012Interview
Bridging Research and Policy: The PopPov Initiative
The Population Reference Bureau, Secretariat of the Population and Poverty Research Initiative (PopPov), produced a video that summarizes the history and goals of PopPov and discusses some key research questions.
-
2012Journal Article
Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity and Perception of Healthy and Desirable Body Size in Urban, Ghanaian Women
To determine if the perceived ideal body size of urban women in Accra, Ghana, influences current body size, researchers used the WHO criteria for BMI and the standardized Stunkard FRS to assess body image in a population of Ghanaian women. Age, relative wealth, being married, having grown up in an urban environment and having parity >2 are associated with higher risk of overweight or obesity. Education level is not associated with overweight status.
-
2012Journal Article
Further Evidence of Community Education Effects on Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa
Earlier investigations have shown associations between a woman’s chance of having a child, or various proximate determinants of her fertility, and the socioeconomic resources in the community in which she lives. This study, which is based on DHS from 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, adds to the knowledge about the proximate determinants of fertility and a community’s socioeconomic resources.
-
2012Journal Article
Who ‘Fills in’ for Siblings and How? A Multilevel Analysis of Personal Network Composition and Its Relationship to Sibling Size
In the midst of widespread fertility decline, I examine the relationship between sibling number and support network composition using data from 25 countries.
-
2012Journal Article
Effect of Maternal Obesity on Neonatal Death in Sub-Saharan Africa: Multivariable Analysis of 27 National Datasets
Rates of obesity are increasing worldwide, including in sub-Saharan Africa. Neonates born to obese mothers in low-income settings are at increased risk of complications. We investigated whether maternal obesity is a risk factor for neonatal death in sub-Saharan Africa.
-
January 2012Book Chapter
Social Networks, Family, and Care Giving Among Older Adults in India
The aim of this chapter is to provide a description of family and network ties among older men and women in India and to illustrate the dynamic interplay between caregiving and receiving among older people.
-
September 2011Journal Article
The association of maternal age with infant mortality, child anthropometric failure, diarrhoea and anaemia for first births: evidence from 55 low- and middle-income countries
To examine the association between maternal age at first birth and infant mortality, stunting, underweight, wasting, diarrhoea and anaemia in children in low- and middle-income countries.
-
September 2011Interview
Women in Accra Work Long Hours for Moderate Wages
Allan Hill and Gunther Fink of Harvard University; Ernest Aryeetey of the University of Ghana; and Kelly Blanchard of Ibis Reproductive Health, analyzed data on women and households to further explain the interaction between sexual activity, reproduction, and labor for productivity at the household level.
-
August 2011Interview
Reproductive Health, Women’s Empowerment, and Economic Prosperity
Duncan Thomas and Elizabeth Frankenberg of Duke University draw on data from family planning and reproductive health programs in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico, and South Africa to measure the impact of these programs on women’s health and well-being.
-
August 2011Working Paper
The Effect of Interventions to Reduce Fertility on Economic Growth
We assess quantitatively the effect of exogenous reductions in fertility on output per capita. Our simulation model allows for effects that run through schooling, the size and age structure of the population, capital accumulation, parental time input into child-rearing, and crowding of fixed natural resources.
-
July 2011Interview
Financial Incentives for Female Births and Parental Investments in Daughters: Evidence From a Program in North India
For over a decade, several states in India have offered financial incentives to discourage preference for sons and to encourage parents to invest in their daughters’ education and health. Nistha Sinha and Joanne Yoong of the World Bank evaluated Apni Beti Apna Dhan (“Our Daughter, Our Wealth”), one such program in the state of Haryana.
-
2011Journal Article
Women’s Property Rights and Gendered Policies: Implications for Women’s Long-Term Welfare in Rural Tanzania
This paper evaluates effects of community-level women’s property and inheritance rights on women’s economic outcomes using a 13 year longitudinal panel from rural Tanzania. Results indicate that changes in women’s property and inheritance rights are significantly associated with women’s employment outside the home, self-employment and earnings. Findings indicate lack of gender equity in sub-Saharan Africa may inhibit economic development for women and society as a whole.
-
2011Dissertation
Essays in Population, Natural Resources, and Economic Growth
This dissertation includes four chapters: How Substitutable Are Fixed Factors in Production? Evidence From Pre-Industrial England; How Relevant Is Malthus for Economic Development Today? (with David N. Weil); The Effect of Interventions to Reduce Fertility on Economic Growth (with Quamrul Ashraf and David N. Weil); and Terms of Trade and Democracy.
-
2011Working Paper
The Impact of Family Planning on Primary School Enrollment in Sub-National Areas Within 25 African Countries
This paper aims to gain understanding on how the availability and use of family planning services in African countries influences the family planning situation of households and, through this, the educational participation of young children. A district panel dataset is used for 441 urban and rural areas within 233 districts of 25 African countries.
-
2011Dissertation
India’s Struggle Against Malnutrition: Is the ICDS Program the Answer?
This paper uses 2005-2006 demographic and health survey data, providing information on child level usage of India’s only national program for combating widespread child malnutrition (ICDS), to assess the impact of its flagship supplementary nutrition program on children’s physical growth.
-
2011Journal Article
District Level Priority Setting Processes and Criteria for Family Planning, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Interventions in Tanzania
This paper seeks to capture and analyze the priority-setting processes and criteria for family planning, maternal, newborn, and child health at district level in Tanzania.
-
2011Dissertation
Health and Economic Effects of Piped Water
Previous studies have been unable to determine piped water’s impact on an individual’s health and economic prosperity because of data limitations. Using data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey, at the individual level, I will analyze the effects of piped water on infant mortality in Indonesia, the long-term effects on later life health and economic outcomes, and how those effects differ by gender.
-
2011Working Paper
Health Outcomes for Children Born to Teen Mothers in Cape Town, South Africa
This paper analyzes the effect of being born to a teen mother on child health outcomes in South Africa. Exploiting the longitudinal nature of the Cape Area Panel Study, we estimate the probability of being a teen mother conditional on pre‐childbirth characteristics. In particular, children born to teens are more likely to be underweight at birth and to be stunted.
-
2011Working Paper
Income Shocks and Adolescent Mental Health
In this paper, the authors investigate the effect of positive income shocks on the mental health of adolescent girls using experimental evidence from a cash transfer program in Malawi.
-
2011Journal Article
Estimating the Costs of Induced Abortion in Uganda
The demand for induced abortions in Uganda is high despite legal and moral proscriptions. These abortions, which are usually unsafe, lead to a high rate of severe complications and use of substantial, scarce healthcare resources. This study estimates the costs associated with induced abortions in Uganda and finds that they are associated with substantial costs, with patients incurring the bulk of the healthcare costs.
-
2011Journal Article
Cash or Condition? Evidence From a Cash Transfer Experiment
This article assesses the role of conditionality in cash transfer programs using a unique experiment targeted at adolescent girls in Malawi. The program featured unconditional transfers and transfers conditional on school attendance.
-
2011Working Paper
Estimating the Effect of Adolescent Fertility on Educational Attainment in Cape Town Using a Propensity Score Weighted Regression
This paper estimates the effect of a teenage birth on the educational attainment of young mothers in Cape Town, South Africa.
-
2011Working Paper
Climate Variability and Infant Mortality in Africa
Changes in heat and precipitation as a result of climate change are expected to have adverse effects on health, particularly among the most vulnerable populations. In this paper we use an extensive dataset of over 400,000 births combined with detailed historical geospatial weather data to investigate the impact of extreme weather events on infant survival in Africa.
-
2011Dissertation
The Cognitive Link Between in Utero Nutrition and Development: Micronutrient Deficiency, Schooling Attainment, and Economic Outcomes in Tanzania
Cognitive development in utero can be affected by maternal folic acid deficiency and can biologically constrain children’s demand for education. Using a more scientifically credible research designed to detect causal effects, we examine how reductions in micronutrient deficiency in utero affect subsequent child schooling attainment in Tanzania.
-
2011Dissertation
Biological, Psychosocial, and Social Capital Implications of the Neighborhood Built Environment
Using ecological, biomarker, and social survey data for Chicago, this dissertation explores the implications of residential location for individual biological, psychosocial, and social well-being for disease, hostile personality, and neighborhood social relations.
-
2011Dissertation
Oportunidades and its Impact on Child Nutrition
Using population-level data from the Mexican Family Life Survey, we examine the impact on child health of a large-scale conditional cash transfer program, Oportunidades.
-
2011Working Paper
Food Crisis, Household Welfare, and HIV/AIDS Treatment: Evidence From Mozambique
Using panel data from Mozambique collected in 2007 and 2008, the authors explore the impact of the food crisis on the welfare of households living with HIV/AIDS. The analysis finds a deterioration of welfare in terms of income, food consumption, and nutritional status among both HIV and comparison households.
-
2011Working Paper
How Substitutable Are Fixed Factors in Production? Evidence From Pre-Industrial England
The extent to which fixed factors of production such as land constrain per-capita income growth has been discussed since Malthus. Limits to growth depend on the substitutability of fixed factors in production and bias toward land-saving technologies. This paper estimates the elasticity of substitution in pre-industrial England.
-
2011Journal Article
Children’s Stunting in Sub-Saharan Africa: Is There an Externality Effect of High Fertility?
This study examines the relationship between women’s family planning outcomes and primary school enrollment among their 8-to-11-year-old children. Data for 103,000 children in 30 sub-Saharan African countries were used. Negative associations with school enrollment are found for those who have short preceding or succeeding birth intervals, a young sibling, or a mother who is pregnant.
-
2011Working Paper
Women’s Economic Resources and Bargaining in Marriage: Does Egyptian Women’s Status Depend on Earnings or Marriage Payments?
Analysis of the 2006 Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey panel data is used to explore the associations between women’s labor market activity, earnings, absolute and proportional marriage payments, and a measure of women’s status within marriage, namely their decisionmaking power.
-
2011Working Paper
Evaluating the Mexico City Policy: How U.S. Foreign Policy Affects Fertility Outcomes and Child Health in Ghana
The Mexico City policy restricts activities of foreign NGOs that receive development assistance. The intent of the policy is to reduce the use of abortion. I find no evidence that any demographic group reduces the use of abortion as a result of the policy, and rural women significantly increase abortions.
-
2011Working Paper
The Influence of Fertility and Household Composition on Female Labor Supply: Evidence From Panel Data on Tanzania
This article studies the impact of fertility on female time allocation to income-generating activities in northern Tanzania. Because of the importance of extended households in African societies, we control for household composition and the position of women in their household.
-
2011Working Paper
Family Planning, Growth, and Income Distribution in Rwanda: SAM Multiplier and Graph Theoretic Path Analysis
This paper examines the links among family planning, sectoral growth, and income distribution in Rwanda. To sum up the findings, investing in family planning health is a viable strategy to promote agricultural growth and reduce poverty through employment created in the rural sector.
-
2011Dissertation
The Effect of Access to AIDS Treatment on Employment Outcomes in South Africa
Little evidence exists on whether antiretroviral drug treatment for AIDS improves employment outcomes in developing countries. In this paper, I examine the labor market effects of the government provision of free ARV treatment in public health clinics in South Africa.
-
2011Dissertation
Long-run Cognitive and Education Impacts of Early Life Public Health Intervention: Evidence From Safe Motherhood Program in Indonesia
Between 1990 and 1996, over 54,000 midwives were introduced in most of Indonesia’s 68,000 villages as part of its safe motherhood strategy. Using the Indonesian Family Life Survey, I examined the long run impacts of the program on cognition and education.
-
2011Journal Article
Provision of Family Planning Services in Tanzania: A Comparative Analysis of Public and Private Facilities
We compared public and private facilities in terms of provision of family planning services, and analyzed data from the health facility questionnaire of the 2006 Tanzania Service Provision Assessment survey.
-
2011Working Paper
Demographic Change and Economic Growth in South Asia
New thinking and evidence have highlighted the powerful contribution that demographic change can make to economic growth, and this line of inquiry has some salient implications for understanding past growth in South Asia and assessing and shaping its future prospects.
-
2011Working Paper
The Relationship Between Fertility and Female Labor Force Participation in Low- to Middle-Income Countries: Uncovering the Heterogeneity Across and Within Countries
In this paper we attempt to uncover the complex relationship that exists between fertility and female labor force participation in low- to middle-income countries. Using the Demographic and Health Surveys, we illustrate the heterogeneity in the relationship across and within countries.
-
2011Journal Article
Public Provision and Protection of Natural Resources: Groundwater Irrigation in Rural India
This paper evaluates the effects of a public groundwater provision program on water tables in northern India, using village-level longitudinal data on aquifers and wells, and examining the limitations of surface pumps.
-
2011Working Paper
Migration and the Transition to Adulthood in Contemporary Malawi
Although research has most often focused on how the timing of school-leaving relates to future well-being, when first marriage and employment occur is also likely to affect well-being at a later time, and yet these two events are under-studied.
-
2011Working Paper
Siyakha Nentsha: Building Economic, Health, and Social Capabilities Among Highly Vulnerable Adolescents in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
This research presents baseline findings from an intervention randomized at the classroom level in peri-urban secondary schools within the Durban metro area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The program is designed to provide vulnerable young people residing in poor, HIV/AIDS-affected communities with increased capabilities for building assets.
-
2011Working Paper
Decisionmaking by Households
Using specially designed population-level longitudinal survey data from Indonesia, we test models of cooperative decisionmaking by households. In the face of shocks, single-adult households tend to reach out to others whereas multiple-adult households tend to consolidate decisionmaking authority.
-
2011Working Paper
Antiretroviral Therapy Awareness and Risky Sexual Behaviors: Evidence From Mozambique
This paper studies the effect of increased access to antiretroviral therapy on risky sexual behavior, using data collected in Mozambique in 2007 and 2008. The findings show that risky sexual behaviors increase in response to the perceived changes in risk associated with increased access to antiretroviral therapy, and that men men and women respond differently to the perceived changes in risk.
-
2011Working Paper
Use of Delivery Care in Tanzania: The Importance of Poverty, Empowerment, and Emergency
This study combines data from a survey and a choice experiment in Tanzania to compare women’s preferences with real choices of delivery care.
-
2011Working Paper
Income Shocks and HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa
Using data on more than 200,000 individuals across 19 sub-Saharan African countries, we present evidence that negative income shocks can lead to substantial increases in HIV prevalence, particularly for women in rural areas.
-
January 2011Working Paper
Family Size, Human Capital, and Growth: Structural Path Analysis of Rwanda
This paper analyzes the role that different household groups play in human capital formation, sectoral growth and income distribution in Rwanda. Using the 2006 SAM of Rwanda, the paper calculates accounting multipliers to characterize the transmission of economic influences stimulated by an exogenous income injection. The paper further explores macroeconomic implications of family size for human capital, sectoral growth and income distribution, drawing on the pathways identified by structural path analysis.
-
2011Working Paper
Population, Poverty, and Sustainable Development: A Review of the Evidence
There is a very large but scattered literature on the economic implications of high fertility. This paper reviews the literature on the effects of high fertility on economic growth in low-income countries and on natural resources; and the effectiveness of family planning programs in lowering fertility.
-
2011Working Paper
Are Indian Farms Too Small? Mechanization, Agency Costs, and Farm Efficiency
New panel data from India are used to examine the relationship between farm size and productivity. Estimates based on appropriately computed labor-shadow prices indicate that while small farms have lower unit labor costs, large farms use substantially less labor per acre, are more mechanized, and are more efficient.
-
2011Working Paper
Throwing the Book at the CSG
We estimate the effect of the child support grant on mothers’ labor supply in South Africa. Balancing tests across the age cut-offs are used to show that there are no significant differences between mothers of eligible and ineligible children in the samples used, over the years.
-
2011Journal Article
Women’s Health Study of Accra: Wave II (WHSA-II)
The first wave of the WHSA was conducted in 2003 and included a household survey of 3,182 women and a clinical examination of 1,328 women, drawn from the same cohort. The follow-up study, WHSA-II builds on Wave-I and was designed to obtain new empirical information on the links between health and wealth at the household level.
-
2011Working Paper
Early Childbearing, Human Capital Attainment, and Mortality Risk
This paper uses a rich longitudinal dataset to examine the relationship between teen fertility and both subsequent educational outcomes and mortality risk in rural South Africa. We find no clear evidence of selectivity into teen childbearing in either schooling trajectories or pre-fertility household characteristics.
-
November 2010Working Paper
Environmental Regulations in China and Their Impact on Air Pollution and Infant Mortality
This study quantifies the impacts of air pollution and related regulations on infant mortality in China.
-
October 2010Journal Article
Does Money Matter? The Effects of Cash Transfers on Child Development in Rural Ecuador
We examine how a government‐run cash transfer program for poor mothers in rural Ecuador influenced the development of young children. Random assignment at the parish level is used to identify program effects.
-
2010Book Chapter
Creating Questions and Protocols for an International Study of Ideas About Development and Family Life
This chapter describes creation and testing of procedures and instruments for use in international comparative research and discusses the implications of the authors’ experience for other researchers who may design international data collections.
-
2010Journal Article
The Contribution of Population Health and Demographic Change to Economic Growth in China and India
We find that a cross-country model of economic growth successfully tracks the growth takeoffs in China and India. The major drivers of the predicted takeoffs are improved health, increased openness to trade, and a rising labor force-to-population ratio due to fertility decline.
-
2010Working Paper
Neighborhoods and Fertility in Accra, Ghana: An AMOEBA-based Approach
Even in a large capital city such as Accra, Ghana, women are having children at a pace well above replacement level, contributing to significant future population growth. Our purpose in this paper is to evaluate the way in which neighborhood context may shape reproductive behavior in Accra.
-
2010Journal Article
Beyond body counts: A qualitative study of lives and loss in Burkina Faso after ‘near-miss’ obstetric complications
This paper examines findings from repeated in-depth interviews with 64 women who survived a clinically defined “near-miss”; the interviews were conducted as part of a study of women who “nearly died” of pregnancy-related complications in Burkina Faso.
-
2010Journal Article
The Short-Term Impacts of a Schooling Conditional Cash Transfer Program on the Sexual Behavior of Young Women
Our results suggest that conditional cash transfer programs not only serve as useful tools for improving school attendance but may also reduce sexual activity, teen pregnancy, and early marriage.
-
2010Working Paper
A Dynamic Structural Model of Contraceptive Use and Employment Sector Choice for Women in Indonesia
This research investigates the impact of the Indonesian family planning program on the labor force participation decisions and contraceptive choices of women.
-
January 2010Journal Article
Economic Growth and Income Distribution: Linking Macroeconomic Models with Household Survey Data at the Global Level
This paper describes in detail the analytical structure of the Global Income Distribution Dynamics (GIDD) model, a global macro-micro modelling framework, and provides some examples of its recent applications.
-
2010Journal Article
Civil Wars Beyond Their Borders: The Human Capital and Health Consequences of Hosting Refugees
The researcher investigated the short-run and long-run causal effects of hosting refugees on outcomes of local children.
-
2010Working Paper
Sex Selective Abortions, Fertility, and Birth Spacing
This paper presents a novel approach that jointly estimates the determinants of sex selective abortions, fertility, and birth spacing, using data from India’s National Family and Health Surveys.
-
2010Working Paper
Child Mobility and Rural Vulnerability in Senegal
Many children leave their parents as part of a household strategy to manage risks. A rural household survey in Senegal aimed to quantify child mobility practices and identify the features of the households from which the children come. Of special concern was the vulnerability of rural households to risks and shocks related to climate.
-
2010Working Paper
Pauvreté et besoins non satisfaits en santé de la reproduction des adolescents et des jeunes en Afrique Centrale
Ce projet s’articule autour des besoins spécifiques des adolescents et jeunes en Afrique Centrale en matière de santé de la reproduction. Il vise à établir le lien avec ces besoins et la pauvreté (dans ses diverses dimensions et à différents niveaux de manifestation), à dégager le profil des adolescents et des jeunes concernés, à tirer un bilan des politiques et programmes actuellement mis en oeuvre sur l’accès de cette population cible aux services et soins de Santé Reproductive (SR), et enfin, à suggérer des stratégies pour améliorer la situation. Le projet s’appuie sur une analyse complémentaire des données socio- démographiques existantes (EDS, MICS, Enquêtes sur le niveau de vie des ménages) et sur une collecte des données originales au moyen d’enquêtes biographiques, qualitatives et situationnelles. Cette collecte de nouvelles données concerne les capitales du Cameroun et du Congo-Brazzaville. Ce premier rapport présente les résultats de l’analyse complémentaire des données existantes. Il détaille les principaux indicateurs utilisés pour documenter les besoins des jeunes en matière de santé de la reproduction, puis présente ces indicateurs sous forme de cartes.
-
2010Journal Article
Capitals Diminished, Denied, Mustered, and Deployed. A Qualitative Longitudinal Study of Women’s Four-Year Trajectories After Acute Health Crisis, Burkina Faso
This article presents findings from longitudinal qualitative research conducted in Burkina Faso, and explores the trajectories of 16 women in the aftermath of costly acute health care episodes.
-
2010Working Paper
China’s Marriage Market and Upcoming Challenges for Elderly Men
The authors examine the anticipated effects of bride shortage and hypergamy for different regions of China. Their projections indicate that unmarried males will likely be concentrated in poorer provinces with low fiscal ability to provide social protection to their citizens.
-
2010Working Paper
Perception of HIV Risk and the Quantity and Quality of Children: The Case of Rural Malawi
Based on longitudinal micro data on mothers and their children in rural Malawi, we find that variation in mothers’ reported HIV risk reduces both child quality, as reflected in children’s schooling and health, and child quantity, when the perceived risk is already moderate or high.
-
2010Working Paper
The Fertility Transition Around the World, 1950-2005
In this paper we analyze the distribution of fertility rates across the world and demonstrate the existence of twin peaks and the division of the world’s countries in two distinct components: a high-fertility regime and a low-fertility regime.
-
2010Book Chapter
Intergenerational Effects of the 1959-61 China Famine
Recent studies have documented the long-term economic effects of maternal and infant malnutrition. Little is known, however, about whether such effects have intergenerational persistence. Effects of mother’s famine exposure are stronger than the effects of father’s famine exposure, and the negative effects for boys are much stronger than for girls.
-
2010Journal Article
Introduction to Special Issue of the European Journal of Population: ‘Economic Consequences of Low Fertility in Europe’
This special issue of the European Journal of Population focuses on possible economic consequences of low fertility in Europe.
-
2010Journal Article
Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health Interventions and Services: Moving From Knowledge of What Works to Systems That Deliver
There are many uncertainties and even disagreements about how maternal, neonatal, and child health services and interventions should be scaled up. This paper describes the existence of eight tensions that underlie these uncertainties and disagreements, and makes three sets of recommendations.
-
2010Working Paper
Fertility, the Demographic Dividend, and Economic Growth
Researchers found that reducing fertility by one child per women increases income per capita by about 20 percent. Most of the income gain is due to an increased number of workers per capita, because of a lower youth dependency ratio, and higher female labor force participation.
-
2010Journal Article
Endemic Diseases and African Economic Growth: Challenges and Policy Responses
Africa bears a heavy burden of disease. In 2006, life expectancy at birth was 50 years in sub Saharan Africa. Over the last five decades, most of the developing world made remarkable strides in catching up to rich-country standards of health. But Africa has become sicker as the rest of the world continues to become healthier.
-
2010Working Paper
HIV Services Delivery and Overall Quality of Care and Satisfaction in Burkina Faso: Are There Privileged Patients?
Forty-three health facilities delivering antiretroviral treatment in Burkina Faso or about to do so were surveyed in 2006. Researchers found that patients visiting for HIV services receive on average better quality than others, but this finding does not imply that HIV services had a negative impact on other health services.
-
2010Working Paper
Fertility and Women’s Labor Force Participation in a Low-Income Rural Economy
This study examines changes in fertility and childbearing on the labor force participation of women in rural Bangladesh. Contrary to much previous research, fertility has little or no impact on female labor force participation.
-
March 2009Report
Population Dynamics and Economic Development: Filling the Research Gaps
Prepared by Shareen Joshi, with support from Rachel Nugent and Meghan Cagley, for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and its partners, the paper summarized progress-to-date on the research agenda on population, reproductive health, and economic development.
-
March 2009Working Paper
Long-Term Financial Incentives and Investment in Daughters
Since the early 1990s, several states in India have introduced financial incentive programs to discourage son preference among parents and encourage investment in daughters’ education and health. This study evaluates one such program in the state of Haryana, Apni Beti Apna Dhan (Our Daughter, Our Wealth).
-
2009Journal Article
Demand and Unmet Need for Means of Family Limitation in Rwanda
Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa, with substantial annual population growth. Negative attitudes toward family planning and failing structures of provision are the dominant constraints on the use of modern contraceptives in Rwanda.
-
2009Working Paper
Analyse de la situation des menages ruraux de la region de Kolda en vue d’une operation – test de transfert monetaire (Cash transfer)
La présente étude entre dans le cadre des efforts entrepris par l’Unicef en vue d’appuyer efficacement, en particulier dans le domaine de la protection des enfants, l’Etat du Sénégal dans sa lutte contre la pauvreté. Cette assistance privilégie la région naturelle de Casamance constituée par les régions administratives de Ziguinchor et Kolda (ancienne région de Kolda). Ces deux régions, longtemps confrontées à ce qui est appelée « la crise casamançaise » Situation des ménages de la région de Kolda Page 7 sur 68 Etude Unicef/FAFO/ENEA, 2009 (insécurité) et à l’enclavement, enregistrent selon les documents officiels, les taux les plus élevés de pauvreté (supérieure à la moyenne nationale) : respectivement 67,1% et 66,5% Ladite assistance est articulée autour des priorités déclinées par le Sénégal à travers le Document de Stratégie pour la croissance et la Réduction de la Pauvreté (DSRP II) 2006/2010, notamment au niveau de l’axe III spécifique à la « Protection sociale, Prévention et gestion des risques et catastrophes » dans la partie Composante de la stratégie nationale de protection sociale notamment en ce qui concerne le renforcement des mécanismes de transfert direct des ressources en faveur des groupes vulnérables et l’améliorer la capacité de réponse aux chocs et risques pour les groupes vulnérables1. Les mesures édictées par l’Etat sont déclinées dans le tableau suivant tiré du DSRP II.
-
2009Journal Article
Incontinence and Trauma: Sexual Violence, Female Genital Cutting, and Proxy Measures of Gynecological Fistula
This paper examines the co-occurrence of incontinence and two potential sources of trauma: sexual violence and female genital cutting in Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Ethiopia. Results indicate that sexual violence is a significant determinant of incontinence in Rwanda and Malawi, but not in Uganda. In contrast, no evidence is found that female genital cutting contributes to incontinence.
-
2009Journal Article
How Relevant Is Malthus for Economic Development Today?
The Malthusian model had a long period of success, covering most of human history in most of the world until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In this paper, we ask whether the model has any relevance to the world today.
-
2009Book Chapter
Population Health and Economic Growth
Improvements in health may be as important as improvements in income when thinking about development and human welfare. Although good health is a goal in its own right—independent of its relationship with income—the link between health and income is important for policy purposes.
-
2009Working Paper
Disease and Development Revisited
Allowing for conditional convergence, exogenous improvements in health due to technical advances associated with the epidemiological transition increased income levels.
-
2009Journal Article
Demographic Change and Economic Growth in Asia
Focusing on East Asia, researchers re-examined the role of the demographic transition in contributing to cross-country differences in economic growth through to 2005.
-
2009Journal Article
Fertility, Female Labor Force Participation, and the Demographic Dividend
Removing legal restrictions on abortion significantly reduces fertility and estimate that, on average, a birth reduces a woman’s labor supply by almost 2 years during her reproductive life.
-
2009Working Paper
The Consequences of Severe Obstetric Complications in Burkina Faso and Benin
This briefing paper describes the experiences of women who have suffered from severe obstetric complications in Burkina Faso and Benin, and compares a range of health, economic, and social indicators with women who experienced uncomplicated births.
-
2009Book Chapter
Population, Poverty Reduction, and the Cairo Agenda
Reproductive Health and Human Rights: The Way Forward critically reflects on the past 15 years of international efforts aimed at improving health, alleviating poverty, diminishing gender inequality, and promoting human rights.
-
2009Working Paper
Schooling and Sexual Behavior in South Africa: The Role of Peer Effects
This study examines the influence of exposure to older peers on sexual debut in urban South Africa.
-
2009Journal Article
Investments, Time Preferences, and Public Transfers Paid to Women
To disentangle the effect of additional income in a household from the effect of changing the distribution of income within the household, the impact of cash transfers on savings and investments decisions is compared with all other income sources.
-
2009Working Paper
Adolescent Girls Health Agenda: Study on Intergenerational Health Impacts
In this document, we provide a series of tables of results detailing child health outcomes and mothers’ characteristics as risk factors.
-
2009Book Chapter
Social Exclusion: The Gendering of Adolescent HIV Risks in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Links among community social cohesion, group membership, and HIV risk behaviors were investigated among 14-to-18-year-old females and males in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
-
2009Working Paper
Fertility and Women’s Labor Force Participation in Developing Countries
Researchers found that preference for children of multiple sexes and sons are predominant factors in determining how women adjust their fertility decisions to the outcome of their first two births.
-
2009Journal Article
Development, Modernization, and Childbearing: The Role of Family Sex Composition
A data set covering 64 countries and some 5 million births was used to show that fertility behavior responds to the presence—or absence—of sons in many regions of the developing world, particularly in Central and South Asia.
-
2009Book Chapter
Women and Development
Using a common framework of cost-benefit analysis, a team of leading economists, including five Nobel Prize winners, assess the attractiveness of a wide range of policy options for combating 10 the world’s biggest problems:
-
2009Journal Article
The Cost of Low Fertility in Europe
Researchers analyzed the effect of fertility on income per capita with a particular focus on the experience of Europe.
-
2009Dissertation
Issues in Assessing the Relationship Between Economic Status and HIV Infection in Sub-Saharan Africa
This dissertation comprises three studies that investigate potential issues in the assessment of the relationship between economic status and HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa.
-
2009Journal Article
Distance Threshold for the Effect of Urban Agriculture on Elevated Self-Reported Malaria Prevalence in Accra, Ghana
Irrigated urban agriculture, which has helped alleviate poverty and increase food security in rapidly urbanizing sub-Saharan Africa, may inadvertently support malaria vectors.
-
2009Dissertation
Welfare Consequences of Co-residing With the Mother-in-Law in Patriarchal Joint Families for Women and Children: Evidence From India and Bangladesh
This dissertation explores the effects of inter-generational, within gender, power dynamics on the welfare of women and children of India and Bangladesh.
-
2009Dissertation
Essays in Maternal Health and Human Rights: Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa
This compilation of essays focuses on programs, policies and emerging issues which center on gender equity and women’s empowerment as broad themes within the larger realm of maternal health and human rights.
-
2009Journal Article
Do Women Increase Their Use of Reproductive Health Care When It Becomes More Available? Evidence From Indonesia
Data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey are used to investigate the impact of a major expansion in access to midwifery services on women’s use of antenatal care and delivery assistance.
-
2009Working Paper
Effects of Reproductive Health Outcomes on Primary School Attendance: A Sub-Saharan Africa Perspective
Multilevel analyses revealed substantially decreased attendance rates of boys and girls with short preceding and succeeding birth intervals, with more siblings, with a young sibling present and with a pregnant mother.
-
2009Journal Article
Políticas de población, programas gubernamentales y fecundidad : una comparación entre el Brasil y México
This article estimates the impact of the implementation of family planning programs on trends in fertility among women in various segments of society in Brazil and in Mexico. Mexico implemented family planning programs in the 1970s, whereas Brazil had no population policies. Differences in fertility by socioeconomic group are sharper in the Brazilian states than in the Mexican ones. The study concludes that family planning policies reduce the differences in fertility among women of different socioeconomic groups.
-
September 2008Working Paper
Development, Modernization, and Son Preference in Fertility Decisions
This study focuses on one measure of son preference in the developing world, namely the likelihood of continued childbearing given the gender composition of existing children in the family.
-
2008Journal Article
Researching the Determinants of Vulnerability to HIV Amongst Adolescents
Adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa are among the groups most vulnerable to HIV. Those who reside in households most affected by AIDS are often the most poor and socially disconnected, and many also have been orphaned by one or both parents.
-
2008Dissertation
Aggregate Effects of AIDS on Development
The AIDS epidemic reduces per capita income by as much as 12% at its peak, and slows the transition from agriculture to industry by about one century for the most highly infected countries.
-
2008Journal Article
Rapid Population Growth Raises the Stakes for African Governments
The new millennium has started out well for Africa. Democracy is making steady progress, GDP per capita is growing, foreign investment is rising, and inflation has dropped.
-
2008Journal Article
The Growing Phenomenon of Private Tutoring: Does it Deepen Human Capital, Widen Inequalities, or Waste Resources?
This survey of the literature examines the extent of private tutoring, identifies the factors that explain its growth, and analyzes its cost-effectiveness in improving student academic performance.
-
2008Working Paper
Is the Developing World Catching Up? Global Convergence and National Rising Dispersion
This study used a microsimulation model to understand global income distribution, and found that there will be a reduction in global income inequality by 2030.
-
2008Working Paper
Migration and the Equilibrium Prevalence of Infectious Diseases
This paper models how migration both influences and responds to differences in disease prevalence between cities, regions, and countries.
-
2008Journal Article
When Does Improving Health Raise GDP?
This research assessed the effect of exogenous health improvements on output per capita, and found that the effects of improved health on income per capita are substantially lower and may not emerge for three decades or more after initial improvements.
-
2008Working Paper
Risk and Risk Management: The Theoretical Approaches of Different Disciplines and Their Relevance to the Empirical Study of Rural Vulnerability in West Africa
In 1999 the World Bank released the first in a series of papers and articles on risk by economists Robert Holzmann and Steen Lau Jørgensen. But no mention was made of sociological risk research.
-
2008Dissertation
Three Essays on Children’s Well-Being in Developing Countries
Several factors that increase the prevalence of poverty and threaten children’s well-being persist in the developing world. This dissertation focuses on the consequences of fertility and risks on health and human capital formation in three developing countries.
-
2008Journal Article
Pregnancy-Related School Dropout and Prior School Performance in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Using data from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, this paper examines the factors associated with pregnancy among schoolgirls, as well as the likelihood of school dropout and subsequent re-enrollment among pregnant schoolgirls.
-
2008Journal Article
Improvements of Techniques to Estimate Migration Rates: An Application With Brazilian Censuses Data
This paper intends to develop procedures which can be applied to different countries and databases to estimate migration rates using information on place of previous residence and duration of residence.
-
2008Working Paper
Can Expansion of Markets for Groundwater Decelerate the Depletion of Groundwater Resource in Rural India?
Researchers have found that, in India, fixed costs for water transactions are decreasing and broader markets result in less depletion of acquifers.
-
2008Working Paper
Social Interactions and Fertility in Developing Countries
There is strong evidence that, in addition to individual and household characteristics, social interactions are important in determining fertility rates.
-
May 2007Working Paper
Does Money Matter? The Effects of Cash Transfers on Child Health and Development in Rural Ecuador
The authors examine how a government-run cash transfer program targeted to poor mothers in rural Ecuador influenced the health and development of their children.
-
2007Working Paper
Gender, Intrahousehold Decisionmaking, and the Demand for Children
Male involvement in the decision to seek out family planning services can lead to a substantial reduction in family planning use, especially if husbands wanted more children than their wives.
-
2007Book Chapter
Household Responses to the Financial Crisis in Indonesia Longitudinal Evidence on Poverty, Resources, and Well-Being
After almost three decades of sustained economic growth, Indonesia experienced a major economic and financial crisis in the late 1990s, when per capita GDP fell by about 15 percent, bringing the economy back to its 1994 level.
-
2007Working Paper
Realizing the Demographic Dividend: Is Africa Any Different?
Researchers tested whether the determinants of growth in general, and the effects of demography in particular, are different in Africa than for the rest of the world.
-
2007Working Paper
Demographic Change and the Structure of Wages: A Demand-Theoretic Analysis for Brazil
Changing relative supply of workers by age group and education can affect labor costs. Researchers used data on 502 local Brazilian labor markets to examine the extent of substitution among demographic groups as relative labor supply has changed.
-
2006Dissertation
The Hidden Cost of Migration: Effect of Brother’s Migration on Sister’s Marriage Outcomes in Rural Bangladesh
This paper examines the effect of brother’s migration on the marriage patterns of sisters in a rural area of Bangladesh.
-
July 2005Report
Population Dynamics and Economic Development: Elements of a Research Agenda
This report from the Center for Global Development outlines a research agenda to investigate the relationship between reproductive health and population dynamics.
-
Report
PopPov: Forging Research Partnerships
The Population and Poverty Research Initiative (PopPov) has supported a global group of researchers looking at how population dynamics affect economic outcomes. This video follows the academic and professional successes that PopPov-funded researchers have experienced over their 10-year history.
Publications & Multimedia
Hundreds of journal articles, book chapters, working papers, and dissertations have been produced through the PopPov research initiative and contribute to the evidence base on the links between population dynamics, reproductive health, and economic development. Interviews and reports summarize key findings from the research articles, papers, and dissertations produced through PopPov.
312 Results
for ”
”
-
April 2017Report
ECONPOP: Results for Sustainable Development
Results from the ECONPOP research program provide insight into how social and health policies can affect population growth and migration. Such policies also shape education and health of the future labor force.
-
February 2017Journal Article
Son Preference, Number of Children, Education and Occupational Choice in Rural Nepal
A unique family survey was conducted in Nepal to investigate the economic consequences of having a first-born girl.
-
January 2017Dissertation
The Puzzle of Family Planning in Tanzania: A multi-method approach for understanding the use of family planning practices
This present thesis, therefore, aims at examining both determinants and barriers to utilization of family planning methods in Tanzania.
-
January 2017Working Paper
Risk Information, Risk Salience, and Adolescent Sexual Behavior: Experimental Evidence from Cameroon
Results from a randomized experiment conducted with teenage schoolgirls in Cameroon suggest that HIV prevention interventions can be effective at reducing the incidence of teen pregnancy in the following 9-12 months by over 25 percent.
-
October 2016Working Paper
Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Interventions on Migration and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Quasi-Random Child Health and Family Planning Program in Bangladesh
In this paper, we take advantage of the quasi-randomly placed Matlab Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning (MCH-FP) program that started in 1977, the phasing out of the program over time, and recent survey data collected by the authors to evaluate the effect of the MCH-FP program on migration and labor market outcomes.
-
September 2016Journal Article
Nutrition, information and household behavior: Experimental evidence from Malawi
This paper studies the effects of a randomized intervention in rural Malawi that, over a six-month period, provided mothers of young infants with information on child nutrition without supplying any monetary or in-kind resources.
-
July 2016Report
Interventions to Address the Economic Causes and Consequences of HIV/AIDS
This policy brief highlights research on financial and educational interventions that can help reduce new HIV infections.
-
June 2016Working Paper
Causes and Consequences of Teen Childbearing: Evidence from a Reproductive Health Intervention in South Africa
The rollout of the National Adolescent Friendly Clinic Initiative (NAFCI) serves as a natural experiment to study the causes and consequences of early teen child bearing.
-
June 2016Report
Investing in Women and Girls for a Gender Dividend
As countries around the world embark on a drive to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030, the concept of a demographic dividend is attracting increased attention among policymakers seeking more sustainable economies.
-
June 2016Journal Article
Fertility, Household’s size and Poverty in Nepal
Population control policies keep on attracting massive attention: having more children would directly contribute to household’s poverty. Using household level data from Nepal, we investigate the links between household’s fertility decisions and variations in their size and composition.
-
May 2016Report
Stakeholder Listings
These stakeholder listings serve to facilitate the dissemination of research results and recommendations to the appropriate stakeholders in government, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.
-
April 2016Working Paper
Youth friendly clinics make inroads in reducing unintended teen births in South Africa
Despite widespread, freely available contraception and progressive reproductive health laws, most teen mothers report their last pregnancy as unintended or unplanned. This begs the question: Why are many sexually active teens failing to use contraceptives when they are widely available for free?
-
April 2016Journal Article
Female Empowerment and the Education of Children in Nepal
Policies for female empowerment need to be tailor-made to specific societies and social groups. The findings indicate that policies for economic empowerment of women, such as education and entrepreneurship programs, may have to be combined with programs that affect social values and norms if the target is to change intrahousehold decisions.
-
March 2016Report
Communicating Research: Policymakers’ Perspective
This policy brief summarizes policymakers’ perspectives on what constitutes barriers to evidence-informed policymaking; strategies for making research results more accessible to high-level policymakers at the country level; and examples of how PopPov-supported researchers addressed policy-relevant questions and applied some of the outreach strategies that policymakers suggest.
-
February 2016Journal Article
Migration and the Equilibrium Prevalence of Infectious Diseases
This paper models how migration both influences and responds to differences in disease prevalence between cities and shows how the possibility of migration away from high-prevalence areas affects long-run steady state disease prevalence.
-
January 2016Journal Article
The Role of Risk Perception in Child Mobility Decisions in West Africa, Empirical Evidence From Benin
Ethnographic research suggests that child mobility serves as a social risk management strategy for vulnerable, uninsured rural households. In line with this research, and as a supplement to previous empirical research on child mobility, this article suggests that child mobility is not only implemented as response to shocks and poverty, but also ex-ante such situations.
-
January 2016Journal Article
The Effect of Cash, Vouchers, and Food Transfers on Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Northern Ecuador
Using a randomized experiment in Ecuador, this study provides evidence on whether cash, vouchers, and food transfers targeted to women and intended to reduce poverty and food insecurity also affected intimate partner violence.
-
January 2016Working Paper
Thirty-five years later: evaluating effects of a quasi-random child health and family planning programme in Bangladesh
This project examines the effects of the Matlab Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning (MCH-FP) program which were implemented in 1977. Treatment and comparison areas were built into the design of the program. The program was phased in over time, starting with family planning and maternal health. Measles vaccination began in 1982 and other child health interventions were included in 1986.
-
January 2016Journal Article
The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?: a mixed methods study on causal mechanisms through which cash and in-kind food transfers decreased intimate partner violence
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is highly prevalent and has detrimental effects on the physical and mental health of women across the world. Despite emerging evidence on the impacts of cash transfers on intimate partner violence, the pathways through which reductions in violence occur remain under-explored.
-
January 2016Journal Article
Estimating the costs for the treatment of abortion complications in two public referral hospitals: a cross-sectional study in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
In spite of the importance of studying the burden of the treatment of induced abortion complications, few studies have been conducted to document the costs of treating abortion complications in Burkina Faso. Our objective was to estimate the costs of six abortion complications including incomplete abortion, hemorrhage, shock, infection/sepsis, cervix or vagina laceration, and uterus perforation treated in two public referral hospital facilities in Ouagadougou and the cost saving of providing safe abortion care services.
-
January 2016Journal Article
The Decision to Invest in Child Quality over Quantity: Household Size and Household Investment in Education in Vietnam
We investigate whether the micro-level evidence supports the hypothesis that Vietnamese parents are in fact making a tradeoff between quantity and “quality” of children.
-
December 2015Report
Making the Case for Investing in Adolescent Reproductive Health
This report examines the evidence for investing in adolescent reproductive health and family planning programs from the perspective of making an evidence-based argument to guide the investment or spending decisions of public or private organizations. This report highlights new research from the Population and Poverty (PopPov) Research Initiative that bolsters the case for these investments and identifies knowledge gaps where research is still needed.
-
November 2015Report
Economic Shifts Affect the Well-Being of Vulnerable Populations
A challenging global environment with slow economic growth, volatile commodity prices, higher food and energy prices, and extreme weather events and natural disasters contribute to poverty in Southern and Southeastern Asia.
-
November 2015Dissertation
Power and Pregnancies: Disentangling Causes and Consequences of Safe Motherhood in Tanzania
This thesis adds to the literature in three ways. First, it brings the two concepts of empowerment and safe motherhood together in a dynamic way, focusing on both the causes and consequences. The central research question of this thesis is therefore: How are women’s empowerment and safe motherhood causally related? Secondly, it provides clearer evidence on which empowerment dimensions is related to which phase of the reproductive cycle. Thirdly, it does so using unique panel data from the Lake Zone region in Tanzania.
-
November 2015Journal Article
The Persistent Effects of In-Utero Nutrition Shocks Over the Life Cycle: Evidence From Ramadan Fasting
More than a billion Muslims living today were potentially exposed to their mother’s fasting in utero. This paper uses the Indonesian Family Life Survey to study the persistent effects of in utero exposure to Ramadan over the life cycle.
-
October 2015Report
Social and Economic Factors Influence Contraceptive Use
Family planning helps women prevent or delay childbearing and space pregnancies for healthier outcomes, but many women in Tanzania have an unmet need for contraception.
-
October 2015Report
The Economic Impact of Adverse Maternal Health Outcomes
The maternal mortality ratio in Burkina Faso is 400 deaths per 100,000 live births, far higher than the global average of 126 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2013.
-
October 2015Report
Access to Health Care Affects Teenage Childbearing
Evidence from South Africa indicates that physical distance to a health care facility is important for health care access and outcomes.
-
October 2015Journal Article
Unconditional government social cash transfer in Africa does not increase fertility
We evaluated the Zambian Child Grant Programme, a government unconditional cash transfer targeted to families with a child under the age of 5 and examine impacts on fertility and household composition.
-
October 2015Working Paper
Mental Accounting and Mobile Banking: Can labeling an M-PESA account increase savings?
Working with a sample of vulnerable women in Kenya, we conduct a field experiment involving a savings intervention consisting of a labeled mobile banking (M-PESA) account, savings goal setting, and text message reminders. The effect of the intervention on savings is positive but imprecisely estimated.
-
August 2015Journal Article
Contraceptive Supply and Fertility Outcomes: Evidence From Ghana
I exploit exogenous, temporary reductions in contraceptive supply in Ghana, resulting from cuts in US funding, to examine impacts on pregnancy, abortion, and births.
-
July 2015Journal Article
Food Price Spikes Are Associated with Increased Malnutrition among Children in Andhra Pradesh, India
We investigated the associations between food price spikes and childhood malnutrition in Andhra Pradesh, one of India’s largest states, with >85 million people. Rising food prices were associated with an increased risk of malnutrition among children in India. Policies to help ensure the affordability of food in the context of economic growth are likely critical for promoting children’s nutrition.
-
July 2015Report
Productivité planification familiale et santé de la reproduction: Une étude interdisciplinaire au Burkina Faso
Le projet PopDev, financé par « Economic and Social Research Council » du Royaume-Uni dans le cadre de l’initiative PopDev, examine ainsi le travail des femmes et comment la santé de la reproduction et la grossesse affectent la productivité.
-
July 2015Working Paper
Fertility and Mother’s Labor Market Behavior: Evidence From the 2011 South African Census
The relationship between fertility and female labor force participation has been a subject of attention for several decades. Most of the literature focuses on developed countries and responds to the interest in understanding the evolution of the increasing female role in labor markets during the last century and the possible effect that controlled fertility may have on it. Fertility, however, is a choice variable and thus endogenous.
-
June 2015Journal Article
Fertility Limitation and Child Schooling in Ouagadougou: Selective Fertility or Resource Dilution?
Using original data collected in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, this study investigates evidence for the competing theories that fertility reductions increase children’s education through either the quantity–quality tradeoff (intentionally choosing smaller families to make greater investments in education and other indicators of child quality) or resource dilution (having more children reduces resources available per child, regardless of intentionality of family size).
-
June 2015Report
Evidence Can Help Make Sustainable Development Investments Strategic
In June 2015, the Population and Poverty (PopPov) Conference on Population, Reproductive Health, and Economic Development hosted researchers to present results that have been supported through these partnerships, as well as through other sources. The conference highlighted evidence that contributes to a better understanding of the relationships among women’s and children’s health, access to health care, and economic well-being, including education and employment, providing insight relevant to achieving the SDGs.
-
June 2015Journal Article
An Assessment of Childbearing Preferences in Northern Malawi
This study investigates prospective fertility intentions in terms of their temporal stability, intensity, degree of spousal agreement, and association with future childbearing in northern Malawi.
-
April 2015Journal Article
HIV Testing, Behavior Change, and the Transition to Adulthood in Malawi
In this article we use the Marriage Transitions in Malawi (MTM) data set, a panel study of initially never married young women and men in central Malawi, to evaluate how, if at all, VCT influences behaviors of young people.
-
April 2015Journal Article
Health Outcomes for Children Born to Teen Mothers in Cape Town, South Africa
This article analyzes whether children born to teen mothers in Cape Town, South Africa, are disadvantaged in terms of their health outcomes because their mother is a teen.
-
March 2015Journal Article
Adequately Diversified Dietary Intake and Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation during Pregnancy Is Associated with Reduced Occurrence of Symptoms Suggestive of Pre-Eclampsia or Eclampsia in Indian Women
We examined the association between adequately diversified dietary intake, iron and folic acid supplementation during pregnancy and symptoms suggestive of PE or E in Indian women.
-
March 2015Report
Reproductive Rights As Economic Empowerment for Women and Girls
On March 17, 2015, PRB hosted a parallel event during the 59th annual UN Commission on the Status of Women.
-
March 2015Journal Article
Poverty, Gender, and Fertility in Rural Kenya
This article is based on two studies in rural villages in Western Province, Kenya in 1988 and 2011. In 1988, this province had the highest fertility level in the country. By 2011, fertility had fallen, but remained high in the national context. The analysis explores the interaction of poverty and gender relations in order to understand this.
-
March 2015Journal Article
India’s Struggle Against Malnutrition – Is the ICDS Program the Answer?
Using DHS data from 2005 to 2006 on child-level participation in ICDS, the author assesses the impact of its flagship supplementary nutrition program on children’s physical growth.
-
February 2015Dissertation
Intrahousehold Productive Inefficiency in Burkina Faso: Can Experimental Inefficiency Measures Explain Differences in Household Income?
Conducting an artefactual experiment in which married individuals make several sets of dichotomous choices between payments given to their spouses and payments given to themselves, households where either spouse equivalently values the spouse’s earnings and her own earnings have a significantly higher conditional income than the remaining households.
-
February 2015Working Paper
What happens once the intervention ends? The medium-term impacts of a cash transfer programme in Malawi
This report evaluates the five year impacts of the Zomba Cash Transfer Programme (ZCTP) in Zomba, Malawi. The ZCTP took place for two years during 2008-2009, and involved giving cash transfers, both conditional on schooling and unconditionally, to initially never-married 13-22 year old young women. The Schooling, Income and Health Risk (SIHR) study was designed to evaluate the impacts of the cash transfer programme on a variety of outcomes ranging from education to health to sexual behavior.
-
February 2015Report
Reproductive Health and Economic Well-Being in East Africa
We researched how investments in women’s and children’s health contribute to economic development. The research focuses on sub-Saharan Africa with an emphasis on including researchers and institutions from the continent as partners. One of the aims is to generate research findings that could be translated into program and policy recommendations for near-term use.
-
2015Journal Article
How Economic Empowerment Reduces Women’s Reproductive Health Vulnerability in Tanzania
This article uses data from northern Tanzania to analyze how economic empowerment helps women reduce their reproductive health (RH) vulnerability. It analyzes the effect of women’s employment and economic contribution to their household on health care use at three phases in the reproductive cycle: before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and at child birth.
-
January 2015Journal Article
Fertility Decline and Child Schooling in Urban Settings of Burkina Faso
We studied the impact of family size on children’s schooling in Ouagadougou (capital of Burkina Faso), using a better measure of household budget constraints and taking into account the simultaneity of fertility and schooling decisions. We find a new negative effect of sibship size on the level of schooling achieved by children–one that grows stronger as they progress through the educational system.
-
January 2015Journal Article
Perception of HIV risk and the quantity and quality of children: the case of rural Malawi
This study introduces individual HIV risk perceptions, as a predictor of mortality, into a quality (Q) – quantity (N) investment model. In this model, higher maternal mortality predicts lower N, while higher child mortality predicts lower Q. Thus, the two effects together make likely negative associations between HIV and both Q and N.
-
2015Working Paper
Contraceptive Use and Birth Intervals
We develop a model linking contraceptive efficiency to birth spacing decisions that incorporates the costs and benefits of child-rearing on the potential mother, as well as the stochastic process surrounding human reproduction.
-
January 2015Journal Article
Demand and Unmet Need to Space Births in Rwanda: A Two-Step Analysis of Determinants
Because the interval between births has a strong effect on infant and maternal morbidity and mortality and because long intervals lead to a further fertility decline, this study seeks to identify the barriers to the use of contraceptives by women who want to space births.
-
January 2015Journal Article
Income Transfers and Maternal Health: Evidence from a National Randomized Social Cash Transfer Program in Zambia
We studied the impact of Zambia’s Child Grant Program on a range of maternal health utilization outcomes using a randomized design and difference-in-differences multivariate regression from data collected over 24 months from 2010 to 2012. Results indicate that while there are no measurable program impacts among the main sample, there are heterogeneous impacts on skilled attendance at birth among a sample of women residing in households having better access to maternal health services.
-
January 2015Journal Article
Environmental regulations on air pollution in China and their impact on infant mortality
This study explores the impact of environmental regulations in China on infant mortality. In 1998, the Chinese government imposed stringent air pollution regulations, in one of the first large-scale regulatory attempts in a developing country. We find that the infant mortality rate fell by 20 percent in the treatment cities designated as “Two Control Zones.”
-
January 2015Working Paper
The Demography of the Labor Force in Emerging Markets
This paper discusses how demographic changes are affecting the labor force in emerging markets. As will be shown below, the demographic situation in emerging markets is rapidly changing.
-
January 2015Journal Article
Early Childbearing, Human Capital Attainment, and Mortality Risk: Evidence From a Longitudinal Demographic Surveillance Area in Rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Using a rich longitudinal dataset, we examine the relationship between teen fertility and both subsequent educational outcomes and HIV related mortality risk in rural South Africa.
-
January 2015Report
Fertility and Poverty in Western and Coast Villages of Kenya
The Fertility and Poverty project examined fertility changes in Western and Coast Regions over a 20-year period (1988-2011). Initially, the fertility level was very high in Western and relatively low in Coast; while a substantial decline followed by a stall took place in Western, while in Coast only a modest decline has taken place. Both regions are now in the upper end of the fertility range. These two regions provide insights into regional variations in the Kenyan fertility stall.
-
December 2014Working Paper
The Impact of Early Childbearing on Schooling and Cognitive Skills Among Young Women in Madagascar
Using a panel survey designed to capture the transition from adolescence to early adulthood, we analyze whether teenage pregnancy contributes to lower school attainment and cognitive skills among young women in Madagascar. We address the endogeneity between fertility and education decisions by instrumenting early pregnancy with the young woman’s access to condoms at the community level, and her exposure to condoms since she was 15 years old.
-
December 2014Journal Article
Disease and Development Revisited
Allowing for conditional convergence, exogenous improvements in health due to technical advances associated with the epidemiological transition appear to have increased income levels.
-
November 2014Working Paper
Female Labor Market Opportunities, Household Decision-Making Power, and Domestic Violence: Evidence from the Bangladesh Garment Industry
This paper examines the effects of increased employment opportunities on women’s decision-making power, the likelihood that women experience domestic violence, and investments in children’s education. Using four waves of the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), I estimate the impact of increased employment opportunities for women using a difference-in-difference specification that exploits spatial variation in factory location and the timing of trade liberalization.
-
August 2014Journal Article
Does Abolishing User Fees Lead to Improved Health Status? Evidence from Post-Apartheid South Africa
Whether user fees for health services should be charged or abolished for the poor has recently been debated. This study examines the impact on child health status of removing user fees in South Africa.
-
July 2014Journal Article
Fertility and Household Consumption Expenditure in Ethiopia: A Study in the Amhara Region
The purpose of this paper is to document the effect of the number of children on the consumption expenditure of Ethiopian households.
-
June 2014Report
Communicating Research to Policymakers: Researchers’ Experiences
Using evidence to inform decisions is essential for good policymaking and program design, given that limited resources require decisionmakers to allocate budgets effectively. But many researchers continue to encounter challenges in sharing their research findings with policymakers.
-
June 2014Interview
The Effects of Youth Population Growth on Sub-Saharan Economics, Interview With David Lam
David Lam discussed the effects of youth population growth on sub-Saharan African economics.
-
June 2014Working Paper
Ungrateful children: migration intensity and remittances in Nepal
Poverty has declined dramatically in Nepal since the end of the conflict. The sharp increase in revenues primarily comes from remittances. From a household’s perspective, choosing the appropriate number of migrants is crucial: they must trade-off the direct cost and loss of local income earners versus the potential remittances. We build a standard game theory model of remittances to emphasize two effects of the number of migrants on the total remittances received that go in opposite directions.
-
June 2014Interview
The Influence of Demographic Transitions on Economic Development in Brazil, Interview With Ernesto Amaral
Ernesto Amaral discussed the influence of demographic transition on economic development in Brazil.
-
May 2014Interview
An Analysis of the Links Between Family Structure, Poverty, and Child Labor
Jean-François Kobiané and Moussa Bougma discussed their analyses of the links between family structure, poverty, and child labor in Africa.
-
March 2014Journal Article
Fertility and Schooling in Ouagadougou: The Role of Family Networks
Drawing on an original dataset (Ouagadougou Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems, Demtrend 2012 retrospective survey), this study uses logistic regression models to study the combined effect of family networks and number of siblings on schooling of children in suburban districts of Ouagadougou.
-
January 2014Report
Appendix C: List of References (PopPov Project Outputs)
As part of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s initiative to enhance research and policy communication in population, reproductive health, and economic development, the foundation has partnered with institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, France, and Africa to strengthen evidence on how population and reproductive health affect economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. This Appendix is part of the report “Investigating Elements of a Population, Poverty, and Reproductive Health Research Agenda, ”available at poppov.org.
-
2014Working Paper
Risk Sharing and Internal Migration
This study examines how internal migration has affected informal risk sharing in Tanzania, where more than half of the population in rural areas has migrated from their home communities.
-
2014Working Paper
The Economic Approach to Fertility: A Causal Mediation Analysis
This study develops an economic fertility model, which explicitly incorporates both the costs of childrearing and contraception behavior.
-
2014Journal Article
Household Bargaining and Excess Fertility: An Experimental Study in Zambia
We posit that household decisionmaking over fertility is characterized by moral hazard since most contraception can only be perfectly observed by the woman. Our researched used an experiment in Zambia that varied whether women were given access to contraceptives alone or with their husbands.
-
2014Working Paper
Household Responses to Information on Child Nutrition: Experimental Evidence From Malawi
Incorrect knowledge of the health production function may lead to inefficient household choices, and thereby to sub-optimal health. This paper studies the effects of a randomized intervention in rural Malawi which, over a six-month period, provided mothers of young infants with information on child nutrition without supplying any monetary or in-kind resources.
-
2014Journal Article
Number, Age Composition, and School Achievements of Siblings in Two African Capital Cities
This paper uses biographical data from Dakar and Yaoundé, two large African cities, to study the link between number of siblings and school attainment. The data describe all fertility events experienced by parents and the number of siblings of each child over time.
-
January 2014Interview
Véronique Filippi on Severe Obstetric Complications in Burkina Faso
Kate Belohlav, research associate at PRB, interviewed professor Véronique Filippi about her research on severe obstetric complications in Burkina Faso.
-
2014Journal Article
Implementing ‘Insider’ Ethnography: Lessons From the Public Conversations About HIV/AIDS Project in Rural South Africa
We describe a research methodology in which “insider” community members work with “outsider” investigators as participant observers to document everyday conversations taking place in public settings in their communities. Our study took place in a resource-poor area of rural South Africa and focused on HIV/AIDS.
-
January 2014Dissertation
Fertility and Household Poverty in Kenya: A Comparative Analysis of Coast and Western Provinces
The present study examines the relationship between household poverty and fertility in Coast and Western provinces using both quantitative and qualitative data. Specifically, the study sought to; 1. Estimate levels and trends of fertility in Coast and Western provinces by level of household poverty 2. Test whether the relationship between household poverty status and fertility depends on the context and 3. Test whether the relationship between household poverty and fertility is an artifact of measurement.
-
2014Working Paper
Parental Health Shocks, Child Labor, and Educational Outcomes: Evidence From Tanzania
Prior literature provides limited empirical evidence on the impact of parental illness on child labor and schooling outcomes. This paper examines this relationship using panel data from Tanzania. Specifically, we study if parental illness causes households to reallocate children’s time from school to work.
-
January 2014Working Paper
Nutrition, Information, and Household Behavior: Experimental Evidence From Malawi
This paper studies the effects of a randomized intervention in rural Malawi which, over a six-month period, provided mothers of young infants with information on child nutrition without supplying any monetary or in-kind resources.
-
2014Working Paper
Rewarding Safer Sex: Conditional Cash Transfers for HIV/STI Prevention
This article discusses the findings of the Rewarding Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention and Control in Tanzania (RESPECT) study, a randomized controlled trial testing the hypothesis that a system of rapid feedback and positive reinforcement that uses cash as the primary incentive can be used to reduce risky sexual activity among young people who are at high risk of HIV infection.
-
2014Journal Article
Family Planning, Growth, Income Distribution: Graph-Theoretic Path Analysis of Rwanda
This paper explores macroeconomic links among family planning, human capital, and economic growth in Rwanda.
-
2014Journal Article
Variations in Desired Family Size and Excess Fertility in East Africa
This contribution studies the variation in desired family size and excess fertility in four East African countries (Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda) by analyzing the combined impact of wealth, education, religious affiliation, and place of residence.
-
January 2014Report
Appendix B: Brief Description of PopPov Projects
As part of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s initiative to enhance research and policy communication in population, reproductive health, and economic development, the foundation has partnered with institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, France, and Africa to strengthen evidence on how population and reproductive health affect economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. This Appendix is part of the report “Investigating Elements of a Population, Poverty, and Reproductive Health Research Agenda,” available at poppov.org.
-
2014Working Paper
Coping With Risk: The Effects of Shocks on Reproductive Health and Transactional Sex in Rural Tanzania
This paper uses data from a panel of women in rural Tanzania whose primary occupation is agriculture to study transactional sex as a risk-coping mechanism and as a contributor to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
-
2014Journal Article
The Effects of Population Dynamics on Economic Growth in Nigeria
The study investigated the effects of population dynamics on the economic growth in Nigeria from 1980 to 2010 by specifically determining the effects of fertility and infant mortality rates on the economic growth.
-
2014Working Paper
Bargaining Power and Biofortification: The Role of Gender in Adoption of Orange Sweet Potato in Uganda
We examine the role of gender in adoption and diffusion of orange sweet potato, a biofortified staple food crop being promoted as a strategy to increase dietary intakes of vitamin A among young children and adult women in Uganda.
-
2014Journal Article
Costs and Consequences of Abortions to Women and Their Households: A Cross-Sectional Study in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Little is known about the costs and consequences of abortions to women and their households. Our aim was to study both costs and consequences of induced and spontaneous abortions and complications. We carried out a cross-sectional study between February and September 2012 in Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso.
-
January 2014Working Paper
Assessing the Impact of Social Grants on Inequality: A South African Case Study
The democratic government in South Africa has developed a system of social grants to combat the high levels of poverty and inequality inherited from the apartheid regime. This South African case study allows for a side-by-side assessment of income inequality decomposition techniques.
-
January 2014Journal Article
Does Duration of Spousal Caregiving Affect Risk of Depression Onset?
This research assessed the association of current and long-term spousal caregiving with risk of depression in a nationally (US) representative sample of older adults. Current spousal caregiving significantly predicted onset of depression; the association was not exacerbated by longer duration of caregiving.
-
2014Journal Article
Income Shocks and HIV in Africa
We examine how variation in local economic conditions has shaped the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Using data from over 200,000 individuals across 19 countries, we match biomarker data on individuals’ serostatus to information on local rainfall shocks, a large source of income variation for rural households.
-
2014Dissertation
Essays on Demographic Changes, Health, and Economic Development
Dans un contexte de changements démographiques, ma thèse de doctorat vise à clarifier deux questions principales : i)comment évaluer le progrès des nations lorsque les populations diffèrent en taille, longévité et répartition des revenus ? et ii)quels sont les effets de la fécondité et de la mortalité sur la croissance économique en Afrique subsaharienne ? La première partie (chapitres 1 et 2) élucide la manière dont les changements en taille de la population, en longévité et en répartition des revenus pourraient être socialement évalués, tandis que la seconde partie (chapitre 3) fournit un cadre de politique publique et des éclairages sur les moyens de réaliser une dividende démographique dans le contexte de l’Afrique subsaharienne.
-
January 2014Interview
Jotham Musinguzi Interview With Susan Rich on the PopPov Initiative
At the 2014 PopPov Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, Susan Rich, vice president of International Programs at the Population Reference Bureau, interviewed Jotham Musinguzi, regional director of the Partners in Population and Development Africa Regional Office.
-
2014Dissertation
Does Trade Reduce Infant Mortality? Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa
This study estimates the effects of a large-scale trade policy shift on a development indicator like infant mortality, using the recent experience of the African Growth and Opportunity Act affecting sub-Saharan Africa.
-
2014Journal Article
Mothers More Altruistic Than Fathers, But Only When Bearing Responsibility Alone: Evidence From Parental Choice Experiments in Tanzania
Because fathers face uncertainty about the relation to their children, the asymmetric parental altruism hypothesis predicts mothers to provide a higher share of parental care than fathers. We tested this hypothesis using parental choice experiments in rural Tanzania, in which fathers and mothers could choose between an outcome that benefited themselves and an outcome that benefited their children.
-
2014Journal Article
Do Girls Have a Nutritional Disadvantage Compared with Boys? Statistical Models of Breastfeeding and Food Consumption Inequalities Among Indian Siblings
India is the only nation where girls have greater risks of under-5 mortality than boys. We test whether female disadvantage in breastfeeding and food allocation accounts for gender disparities in mortality. Indian girls are breastfed for shorter periods than boys and consume less milk.
-
2014Working Paper
Social Insurance and the Marriage Market
Social insurance is often linked to marriage. I model how such a link affects the marriage market and provide evidence exploiting Sweden’s elimination of survivors insurance.
-
2014Working Paper
Postpartum Family Planning in Burkina Faso
This is a formative study aiming to identify the main barriers to the provision and uptake of quality postpartum family planning services at the supply, access, demand, and policy levels in Burkina Faso.
-
January 2014Report
Investigating Elements of a Population, Poverty, and Reproductive Health Research Agenda and Its Appendices
As part of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s PopPov initiative to enhance research and policy communication in population, reproductive health, and economic development, the foundation has partnered with institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, France, and Africa to strengthen evidence on how population and reproductive health affect economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Hewlett partners–the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), the Research Council of Norway (RCN), WOTRO Science for Global Development, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), l’Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), l’Agence française de développement (AFD), Institute for International Education (IIE), and the World Bank–have awarded research funding to more than 46 principal investigators and 49 Ph.D. candidates as of October 2012.
-
January 2014Report
Appendix A: Overview of PopPov Projects
As part of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s initiative to enhance research and policy communication in population, reproductive health, and economic development, the foundation has partnered with institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, France, and Africa to strengthen evidence on how population and reproductive health affect economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. This Appendix is part of the report “Investigating Elements of a Population, Poverty, and Reproductive Health Research Agenda,” available at poppov.org.
-
January 2014Working Paper
Poverty, Inequality, and Prices in Post-Apartheid South Africa
This paper aims to tell the story of the evolution of both money-metric and non-money-metric poverty and inequality in post-apartheid South Africa, and to assess the effect of prices on this story.
-
2014Dissertation
An Economic Analysis of Maternal Health Care in Zambia
This thesis investigates the utilization of maternal health care in Zambia, where despite being a signatory to the Safe Motherhood Initiative and Millennium Development Goals, which are aimed at improving maternal health, indicators of maternal health continue to perform poorly.
-
2014Working Paper
The Role of Paid Parental Leave in Reducing Women’s Career Interruptions: Evidence From Paid Leave Laws in California and New Jersey
This paper analyzes the effects of paid parental leave on birth-related interruptions in women’s labor-force participation in California and New Jersey. Paid-leave mandates have little impact on exits lasting longer than six months but substantially decrease the incidence of exits lasting less than six months. The effects are only present for mothers with less than a college degree who are less likely to have private paid leave.
-
2014Working Paper
Impact of a Youth-Targeted Reproductive Health Initiative in South Africa
In the early 2000s, the National Adolescent Friendly Clinic Initiative (NAFCI) aimed to reduce teen pregnancy in South Africa by eliminating physical and social barriers to reproductive health services. Based on interviews with stakeholders and a series of controls, I argue that geographic and timing variation of the NAFCI rollout led to a conditionally random increase in reproductive health knowledge and clinical access.
-
2014Working Paper
What Do Indian Children Drink When They Do Not Receive Water? Prevalence of Water and Alternative Beverage Consumption From the 2005-2006 Indian National Family Health Survey
Over 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water globally. However, little is known about what children drink when there is no clean water. We examined what Indian children who receive no water drink using data from the latest available India National Family and Health Survey.
-
January 2014Journal Article
Distance Decay and Persistent Health Care Disparities in South Africa
Access to health care is a particular concern given the important role of poor access in perpetuating poverty and inequality. South Africa’s apartheid history leaves large racial disparities in access despite post-apartheid health policy to increase the number of health facilities, even in remote rural areas. However, even when health services are provided free of charge, monetary and time costs of travel to a local clinic may pose a significant barrier for vulnerable segments of the population, leading to overall poorer health.
-
November 2013Report
Unmet Need and Demand for Smaller Families in Rwanda
Rwanda faces development challenges that strain economic and natural resources and potentially contribute to ethnic tensions. As recently as 2005, only one in 10 married women were using a modern method of contraception.
-
November 2013Report
Household Decisionmaking and Contraceptive Use in Zambia
Family planning services promote a wide range of health and socioeconomic benefits to women, men, and their families. Still, many barriers prevent women from using contraception. Despite efforts to increase awareness and improve access to these family planning services, unmet need for family planning and unwanted pregnancies remains high in many low- and middle-income countries, suggesting that other factors may be driving contraceptive use.
-
October 2013Dissertation
Family Planning, Fertility Reduction and Economic Development in Africa
The overall purpose of my research is to analyze the relationships and interactions between family planning and socio-economic outcomes at household and district level, so as to understand the pathways through which family planning affects socio-economic development.
-
August 2013Interview
Abiba Longwe: Reproductive Health and Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa
Abiba Longwe is a Ph.D. student in economics at Radboud University Nijmegen, and a participant in PRB’s 2013-2014 Policy Communication Fellows Program, funded by USAID through the IDEA project.
-
July 2013Journal Article
Migration and the Transition to Adulthood in Contemporary Malawi
This article investigates the relationship among major life events, household characteristics, and migration among adolescents and young adults in contemporary Malawi. Two main questions are investigated: What are the socioeconomic and demographic determinants of migration? And how do schooling, first marriage, and work relate to migration patterns?
-
May 2013Working Paper
Global Demographic Trends and Their Implications for Employment
This paper discussed global demographic trends with a focus on their implications for the size and rate of growth of the labor force.
-
May 2013Report
The Population and Poverty Research Initiative
As part of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s initiative to enhance research and policy communication in population, reproductive health, and economic development, the foundation has partnered with institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, France, and Africa to strengthen evidence on how population and reproductive health affect economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Under this PopPov initiative, Hewlett partners have awarded research funding to more than 50 principal investigators and 50 Ph.D. candidates.
-
April 2013Journal Article
Income Shocks and Adolescent Mental Health
We investigate the effects of a positive income shock on mental health among adolescent girls using evidence from a cash transfer experiment in Malawi.
-
January 2013Interview
Fertility and Poverty: The Role of Gender and Reproductive Health
In an interview at the Seventh Annual Conference on Population, Reproductive Health, and Economic Development in Oslo, Norway, researchers An-Magritt Jensen and Anne Khasakhala answered questions about their project on fertility and poverty in two areas of Kenya.
-
2013Working Paper
Madagascar Young Adult Transitions Survey
This report provides a preliminary descriptive analysis of the Madagascar Youth Transition Survey 2012–13, the last round of a cohort panel following children from around age 8 or 15 to their early 20s. This last round of the survey was designed to improve our understanding of the determinants and impacts of the major life transitions of young people in Madagascar.
-
2013Journal Article
Family Planning and Women’s and Children’s Health: Long-Term Consequences of an Outreach Program in Matlab, Bangladesh
We analyze the impact of an experimental maternal and child health and family planning program that was established in Matlab, Bangladesh, in 1977. Village data from 1974, 1982, and 1996 suggest that program villages experienced a decline in fertility of about 17 percent. Household data from 1996 confirm that this decline in “surviving fertility” persisted for nearly two decades.
-
2013Working Paper
How Subjective Beliefs About HIV Infection Affect Life-Cycle Fertility: Evidence From Rural Malawi
This paper studies the effect of subjective beliefs about HIV infection on fertility decisions in a context of high HIV prevalence and simulates the impact of different policy interventions, such as HIV testing programs and prevention of mother-to-child transmission, on fertility and child mortality.
-
January 2013Journal Article
Health and Social Support Among Women Treated for Abortion Complications in Western Uganda
In this study, we performed an assessment of the relationship between abortion complications, Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and social support among women in Uganda. We found that abortion complications are associated with diminished HRQoL and the magnitude of the association depends on social support.
-
January 2013Journal Article
Communication, Knowledge, Social Network and Family Planning Utilization Among Couples in Mwanza, Tanzania
This study examines factors which influence the use of family planning in rural Tanzania, where utilization is low and unmet need for family planning is high. The results show significant associations between family planning utilization and wealth, social networks, knowledge and communication among spouses.
-
2013Journal Article
What Has High Fertility Got to Do With the Low Birth Weight Problem in Africa?
There has been much concern about adverse individual and societal consequences of high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa. One concern is that children of high birth orders may have low birth weight. However, the evidence for such an effect is not strong.
-
2013Journal Article
The Long-Term Economic Impact of Severe Obstetric Complications for Women and Their Children in Burkina Faso
This study investigates the long-term economic impact of severe obstetric complications for women and their children in Burkina Faso, focusing on measures of food security, expenditures, and related quality of life measures. It uses a hospital-based cohort, first visited in 2004/2005 and followed up four years later.
-
January 2013Journal Article
Population Dynamics and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa
The study examines the effect of population dynamics (mortality and fertility) on economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa from 1970 to 2005, using the five year average.
-
2013Working Paper
The Decision to Invest in Child Quality Over Quantity: Household Size and Household Investment in Education in Vietnam
During Vietnam’s two decades of rapid economic growth, its fertility rate has fallen sharply at the same time that its educational attainment has risen rapidly. This paper investigates whether the micro-level evidence supports the hypothesis that Vietnamese parents are in fact making a trade-off between quantity and quality of children.
-
2013Working Paper
Income Shocks, Contraceptive Use, and Timing of Fertility
This paper examines the relationship between household income shocks and fertility decisions. Using panel data from Tanzania, we estimate the impact of agricultural shocks on contraception use, pregnancy, and the likelihood of childbirth.
-
2013Working Paper
Number and Spacing of Children and Women’s Employment in Africa
We analyze the effects of the number of recent births and the spacing between the last two children on women’s labor force participation in non-agricultural employment in Africa.
-
January 2013Interview
Fertility Outcomes and the Roles of Children in Household Risk-Management Strategies in Rural West Africa: The Cases of Senegal and Benin
Researcher Anne Kielland spoke with PRB staff about her project on the roles of children in household risk-management strategies in rural Senegal and Benin.
-
January 2013Journal Article
Reproductive health laws and fertility decline in Ghana
An unresolved debate in demography concerns the causal sequence between the supply of contraception and the demand for smaller families in fertility decline. Through a mixed-methods approach, we explored the effect of a sudden increase in access to legal abortion on subsequent fertility decline when Ghana’s criminal code was amended in 1985.
-
January 2013Interview
Jan Monteverde Haakonsen on RCN’s ECONPOP
At the 2013 PopPov Conference in Oslo, Norway, PRB staff interviewed Jan Monteverde Haakonsen, special adviser in the Department of Cooperation and Development Research at the Research Council of Norway (RCN) about RCN’s role in the PopPov research initiative.
-
January 2013Journal Article
The Impact of Family Planning on Primary School Enrolment in Sub-national Areas within 25 African Countries
We study how the availability and use of family planning services in African countries influences the family planning situation of households and through this the educational participation of young children.
-
2013Journal Article
Age, Education, and Earnings in the Course of Brazilian Development: Does Composition Matter?
Shifts in the age distribution of the working-age population have been studied in relation to the effect of the baby-boom generation on the earnings of different cohorts in the U.S., but little attention has been paid to Asia and Latin America. In this analysis, we estimate the impact of the changing relative size of the adult male population on the earnings of employed men living in 502 Brazilian local labor markets between 1970 and 2000.
-
January 2013Journal Article
Family Planning Decisions, Perceptions, and Gender Dynamics Among Couples in Mwanza, Tanzania: A Qualitative Study
Using qualitative methods, this study explores family planning (FP) decisions, perceptions and gender dynamics among couples in Mwanza region of Tanzania. Several themes emerged, including the risks and costs of using family planning, male involvement, gender relations and communications, and differences between urban and rural residents.
-
2013Journal Article
Too Poor to Live? A Case Study of Vulnerability and Maternal Mortality in Burkina Faso
This paper examines the concept of vulnerability in the context of maternal morbidity and mortality in Burkina Faso, an impoverished country in West Africa. Drawing on a longitudinal cohort study into the consequences of life-threatening or “near-miss” obstetric complications, we provide an in-depth case study of one woman’s experience of such morbidity and its aftermath.
-
2013Journal Article
Delivery Care in Tanzania: A Comparative Analysis of Use and Preferences
Maternal mortality remains high because of low use of skilled delivery care, but little is known about women’s preferences. This study combines data from a survey and a choice experiment in Tanzania to compare women’s preferences with real choices of delivery care.
-
2013Journal Article
Reproductive Preferences and Contraceptive Use: A Comparison of Monogamous and Polygamous Couples in Northern Malawi
Men’s role in reproductive decisionmaking is important. Several studies have argued that fertility preferences differ between polygamous and monogamous unions. Data from the Demographic Surveillance Site in Karonga District in northern Malawi about the fertility preferences and contraceptive use of husbands and wives were investigated. The research offers insight into the reproductive decisionmaking process of polygamous couples.
-
2013Journal Article
HIV Status and Labor Market Participation in South Africa
We use econometric methods based on the propensity score to estimate the causal effect of HIV status on employment outcomes in South Africa. We provide the first nationally representative estimates of the impact of HIV status on employment outcomes for southern Africa.
-
2013Dissertation
The Effects of Household and Community-Based Interventions: Evidence From Indonesia
Low birth weight is a global health problem, especially in developing countries. This research evaluates policies that target maternal and children’s health in low-resource settings.
-
2013Working Paper
Child Height After a Natural Disaster
The impact of unanticipated shocks on health in very early life and their implications for health in later life is of substantial interest to health and population scientists. This study investigates the impact of exposure to a large-scale natural disaster on the linear growth of young children.
-
2013Journal Article
The Effect of Fertility Reduction on Economic Growth
In the context of a high-fertility developing country, how much higher would income per capita be if the fertility rate were to fall by a specified amount? Over the last half-century, consensus has shifted from fertility declines having strong effects, to their not being very important, and recently back toward assigning them some significance.
-
2013Journal Article
Fertility and Maternal Hours of Work in Ethiopia: A Case Study in the Amhara Region
Theoretical evidence suggests that mothers work fewer hours with a large number of young children and more hours when children are adults. Using data from a household sample survey of rural and urban married women with at least two live children, this study documents the maternal hours of work affected by the number of children. Generally, our results contradict traditional theory and show that Ethiopian mothers with large numbers of young children work longer.
-
2013Working Paper
Life Quantity, Life Quality, and Longevity: An Intertemporal Social Evaluation Framework
The evaluation of development processes and of public policies often involves comparisons of social states in which populations differ in size and longevity. This paper explores the use of axiomatic and welfarist principles to assess social welfare in that framework.
-
2013Journal Article
Management of Non-Marital Fertility in Two South African Communities
In this analysis, we draw on qualitative data to examine the management of nonmarital fertility among young women in two rural, black communities in two provinces of South Africa: KwaZulu–Natal and Mpumalanga. While the two communities share a history of economic and social disadvantage and limited access to the labor market, there are distinctive features in the management of nonmarital fertility.
-
2013Working Paper
Distance As a Barrier to Health Care Access in South Africa
Poor access to health care perpetuates poverty and inequality. South Africa’s apartheid history leaves large racial disparities in access. Using new data from the first nationally representative panel survey in South Africa together with data from the Department of Health, we investigate the role of distance to the nearest facility on patterns of health care use.
-
2013Journal Article
The Impact of Early Childbearing on Schooling and Cognitive Skills Among Young Women in Madagascar
Female secondary school attendance has recently increased in sub-Saharan Africa; however, the higher likelihood of attending school after puberty has put girls at risk of becoming pregnant while attending school. Using a panel survey designed to capture the transition from adolescence to early adulthood, we analyze whether teenage pregnancy contributes to lower school attainment and cognitive skills among young women in Madagascar.
-
2013Journal Article
Implications of China’s Future Bride Shortage for the Geographical Distribution and Social Protection Needs of Never-Married Men
Because sex ratios at birth have risen sharply in China in recent decades, an increasing proportion of men will be unable to find a bride, and will face old age without the support of a wife and children. We project the proportions of never-married men and their geographical distribution in China in the coming decades.
-
2013Working Paper
Human Trafficking and Regulating Prostitution
We study human trafficking in a marriage market model of prostitution. We ask if regulation can eradicate trafficking and restore the outcome that would arise in an unregulated market without traffickers.
-
2012Working Paper
Impacts of School-Based HIV Education on Reported Behavior and Knowledge of Adolescent Girls
This paper reports on a randomized field experiment to study how teenage girls in Cameroon respond to different school-based HIV education programs. This experiment was specifically designed to test whether the type of messenger as well as the type of information affect how much information is retained, how much information is transmitted to peers, and how reported behavior changes among girls and their friends.
-
November 2012Dissertation
How Subjective Beliefs about HIV Infection Affect Life-Cycle Fertility: Evidence from Rural Malawi
In this paper, I study the effect of subjective beliefs about HIV infection on fertility decisions in a context of high HIV prevalence and evaluate the impact of different policy interventions, such as HIV testing programs and prevention of mother-to-child transmission, on fertility and child mortality.
-
October 2012Journal Article
Current and long-term spousal caregiving and onset of cardiovascular disease
This paper seeks to estimate the association between spousal caregiving and incident cardiovascular disease in older Americans. Spousal caregiving independently predicted risk of CVD in a large sample of US adults. There was significant evidence that the effect for long-term care givers differs for non-whites and white.
-
September 2012Report
Costs of Induced Abortion and Cost-Effectiveness of Universal Access to Modern Contraceptives in Uganda
Uganda is the third fastest-growing country in the world. Recent surveys indicate that only 31 percent of Ugandan women of reproductive age who want to use contraceptives report that they are indeed using a modern effective method. To respond to the high level of unmet need, the Ugandan government has begun to include family planning in its health program.
-
August 2012Report
The Effects of an Economic Crisis on Contraceptive Use
Couples receive many health and socioeconomic benefits from having fewer children, and having access to modern contraception helps them to have the number of children they desire. To improve couples’ access to modern contraception, governments and international organizations in many low-income countries distribute contraceptives either at subsidized prices or for free.
-
August 2012Report
Beyond Maternal Mortality: Surviving an Obstetric Complication in Burkina Faso
For many women, emergency obstetric care is a catastrophic expenditure that may potentially contribute to a cycle of poverty and poor health. This brief summarizes findings from one study that qualitatively examines how some women in Burkina Faso fared after such “near miss” experiences.
-
May 2012Interview
Joseph Babigumira: Health Economics of Unsafe Induced Abortion in Uganda
In this interview, PopPov researcher Joseph Babigumira of the University of Washington shares research findings on abortions in Uganda, which are a consequence of the high prevalence of unintended pregnancies, a result of the high level of unmet need for contraception.
-
May 2012Report
Reproductive Health and Economic Development: What Connections Should We Focus On?
Reproductive health, defined as the use of effective contraception, use of health care during pregnancy and childbirth, and health care for infants, is a critical component of human capital. Investments in reproductive health are linked to lower fertility and reduced maternal and child morbidity and mortality.
-
May 2012Interview
Poverty, Gender Inequities, and Sexual/Reproductive Health in Rural Tanzania
Researcher Will Dow describes his work related to the PopPov Network. His research focuses on health economics, international health, and economic demography.
-
April 2012Interview
Gervais Beninguisse: Poverty and Unmet Need in Reproductive Health of Youth in Central Africa
In this video interview, Gervais Beninguisse of IFORD Cameroon shares research findings on the extent of unmet needs in reproductive health of adolescents and youth in Central Africa and illustrates their links with poverty.
-
April 2012Report
Human Capital Consequences of Teenage Childbearing in South Africa
Women in South Africa have had fewer children on average since the 1970s, but the rate of teenage childbearing in South Africa has remained the same. Large numbers of young mothers are a cause for social concern in South Africa and other countries because of the adverse impact of teenage childbearing on the education and health of teen mothers and their children.
-
April 2012Journal Article
Spousal Caregiving and Incident Hypertension
This paper investigates the association between the risk of incident hypertension and spousal caregiving in a large, nationally representative sample of American older adults.
-
March 2012Interview
Alice Mesnard: Health Risks and Migration
In this video, Alice Mesnard of City University London describes her research on health risks and migration, a rarely studied topic despite their important consequences for the planning, targeting, and effectiveness of health policies.
-
March 2012Interview
Kelly Jones: Evaluating the Mexico City Policy: International Aid/Fertility in Ghana
In this video, PopPov researcher Kelly Jones of the International Food Policy Research Institute discusses research findings from Ghana that show how the Mexico City Policy had unintended consequences for induced abortion and unintended pregnancies, especially for the poorest and least educated.
-
February 2012Interview
Fred Sai: Reflections on Decades of Working Toward Family Planning Access and Rights
Fred Sai, former Ghanaian Presidential Advisor on Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS, has worked tirelessly for decades toward family planning and nutrition. He has held positions at FAO, United Nations University, IPPE, and The World Bank.
-
February 2012Interview
Pieter Hooimeijer: Rwanda’s High But Recently Declining Fertility
In this video, PopPov researcher Pieter Hooimeijer of Utrecht University shares research findings from Rwanda that show how reproductive health investments can break the cycle of decreasing agricultural productivity, high population growth, and increasing poverty, and discusses how high fertility has affected primary education for poorer children.
-
2012Journal Article
Human Capital Investment and the Gender Division of Labor in a Brawn-Based Economy
A model of human capital investment and activity choice is used to explain facts describing gender differentials in the levels and returns to human capital investments and occupational choice. Evidence from rural Bangladesh supports the model and the importance of the distribution of brawn.
-
2012Working Paper
Networks and Constraints on the Diffusion of a Biofortified Agricultural Technology: Evidence From a Partial Population Experiment
This paper examines the role of networks in the diffusion of a biofortified agricultural technology with potential economic and health benefits. The technology is the orange-fleshed sweet potato, which was bred to be dense in vitamin A and is higher yielding but more vulnerable to dry spells than are traditional staple sweet potato varieties. OSP was introduced in three districts in Uganda in order to fight vitamin A deficiency.
-
January 2012Journal Article
Simulating the Impact of Exogenous Food Price Shock on Agriculture and the Poor in Nigeria: Results from a Computable General Equilibrium Model
Motivated by the recent global economic crisis, this paper simulated the impact of a rise in the price of imported food on agriculture and household poverty in Nigeria using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) class of decomposable poverty measures on the 2006 social accounting matrix (SAM) of Nigeria and the updated 2004 Nigeria Living Standards Survey (NLSS) data.
-
2012Working Paper
Does Abolishing User Fees Lead to Improved Health Status? Evidence From Post-Apartheid South Africa
This study examines the impact of removing user fees on child health status in South Africa. We find that free health care improved the health status of boys but not of girls.
-
2012Working Paper
Do Health Care Providers Respond to Demand-Side Incentives? Evidence From Indonesia
This paper exploits the sub-district randomization of Indonesia’s household Conditional Cash Transfer program to analyze how the program affects the local health care market.
-
2012Working Paper
The Role of Education and Family Background in Marriage, Childbearing, and Labor Market Participation in Senegal
This paper examines the role of education and family background on age at marriage, age at first birth, and age at labor market entry for young women in Senegal using a rich individual-level survey conducted in 2003.
-
2012Journal Article
Potential Cost-Effectiveness of Universal Access to Modern Contraceptives in Uganda
Over two-thirds of women who need contraception in Uganda lack access to modern effective methods. This study was conducted to estimate the potential cost-effectiveness of achieving universal access to modern contraceptives in Uganda by implementing a hypothetical new contraceptive program from both societal and Ministry of Health perspectives.
-
2012Journal Article
Child Growth in Urban Deprived Settings: Does Household Poverty Status Matter? At Which Stage of Child Development?
This paper uses longitudinal data from two informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya, to examine patterns of child growth and how these are affected by four different dimensions of poverty at the household level.
-
2012Journal Article
When Urban Taps Run Dry: Sachet Water Consumption and Health Effects in Low-Income Neighborhoods of Accra, Ghana
In Accra, Ghana, municipal water is rationed to meet demand, and the gap in water services is increasingly being filled by private water vendors selling packaged “sachet” water.
-
2012Dissertation
The Persistent Effects of in Utero Nutrition Shocks Over the Life Cycle: Evidence From Fasting During Ramadan in Indonesia
Every year Muslims fast during the Islamic month of Ramadan. This paper uses longitudinal data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey to study the effects of in utero exposure to Ramadan on multiple outcomes, including adult labor supply, over the life cycle.
-
2012Journal Article
Sexual and Reproductive Health in Accra, Ghana
To describe sexual and reproductive health among women in Accra and explore the burden of sexual and reproductive ill health among this urban population, researchers designed a cross-sectional study analyzing data from various studies.
-
2012Working Paper
An Application of Propensity Score Matching to Assess the Impact of Unintended Childbearing on Children’s Growth in Northern Malawi
We analyze data on fertility intentions and children’s anthropometric measures collected as part of an ongoing Demographic Surveillance Site (DSS) in Karonga District in northern Malawi, and we apply propensity score matching to assess the effect of “unintendedness” on child growth.
-
2012Journal Article
Incentivising Safe Sex: A Randomised Trial of Conditional Cash Transfers for HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention in Rural Tanzania
The authors evaluated the use of conditional cash transfers as an HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention strategy to incentivize safe sex. Research was conducted in 10 villages in rural southwestern Tanzania.
-
2012Working Paper
Son Preference, Number of Children, Education, and Occupational Choice in Rural Nepal
A unique family survey was conducted in Nepal to investigate the economic consequences of having a first-born girl. Women have more children, but we find no causal effect of number of children on economic outcomes. But independently of the number of children there is a positive effect on boys’ education of having a first born sister, who presumably takes care of household work so the boys can focus on school.
-
2012Journal Article
Free Education in Rwanda: Just One Step Toward Reducing Gender and Sibling Inequalities
In 2003, Rwanda introduced free education as part of government policy to improve school enrollment and particularly the attendance of deprived children. Our analysis, using data from the 2000 and 2005 Integrated Household Living Conditions Surveys, shows that although the policy has been very successful, the objective has not been achieved.
-
2012Dissertation
Causes and Consequences of Fertility in the U.S. and Ghana: A Spatial Econometric Approach
This dissertation examines the causes of fertility variations in Ghana and the U.S., as well as the impacts of family size on children in Ghana.
-
2012Journal Article
Fertility Regulation in an Economic Crisis
Using longitudinal survey data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey, we exploit dramatic variation in prices and incomes induced by the economic crisis in the late 1990s to pin down the effect of contraceptive availability and costs as well as use and method choice. Contraceptive costs and family resources have a very small impact on contraceptive use and method.
-
2012Journal Article
Tanzanian Couples’ Perspectives on Gender Equity, Relationship Power, and Intimate Partner Violence: Findings From the RESPECT Study
Intimate partner violence is widely prevalent in Tanzania. We used data from the RESPECT study to examine the relationship between couples’ attitudes about intimate partner violence, relationship power, sexual decisionmaking, concordance on these issues, and women’s reports of violence over 12 months.
-
2012Journal Article
‘This year I will not put her to work’: The Production/Reproduction Nexus in Burkina Faso
Global advocacy campaigns increasingly highlight the negative impact of reproductive morbidity on economic productivity and development in order to justify donor investment in maternal health. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from Burkina Faso, this paper analyses the dynamic and sometimes contradictory relationship between women’s work and reproductive health in impoverished communities.
-
2012Working Paper
Consequences of Withdrawal: Free Condoms and Birth Rates in the Philippines
This paper presents new evidence on the role of subsidized contraceptives in influencing fertility behavior. It finds that birth rates were responsive to both broad and transitory changes in public contraceptive supply.
-
January 2012Report
The Economics of Reproductive Health in Accra, Ghana
Reproductive health services can help women avoid unplanned births, unsafe abortions, and pregnancy-related disabilities. Modern contraception gives couples a safe and reliable way to have the number of children they want. With smaller families, women spend less time dealing with pregnancy and child care and have more time for work outside the home.
-
January 2012Journal Article
Income and Health in Accra, Ghana: Results from a Time Use and Health Study
This paper uses newly collected household survey data from Accra, Ghana, to investigate whether incomes affect acute and chronic health outcomes in settings that can be considered representative for the large and rapidly growing urban centers of sub-Saharan Africa.
-
2012Journal Article
Fertility Intentions and Use of Contraception Among Monogamous Couples in Northern Malawi in the Context of HIV Testing: A Cross-Sectional Analysis
Knowledge of HIV status may influence fertility desires of married men and women. A cross-sectional analysis of interview data from men and women in monogamous marriages in northern Malawi found that knowledge of HIV-positive status is associated with an increase in the reported desire to cease childbearing but there was limited evidence that this desire led to higher use of contraception.
-
2012Working Paper
Fertility and Well-Being Effects of an Aggressive Family Planning Policy in Peru in the 1990s: A Reweighting Estimator With a Contaminated Treatment Group Approach
In the mid-1990’s Peru initiated an aggressive family planning program to reduce poverty. Female sterilization was an official element of the program, and anecdotal evidence suggests that health workers were given large sterilization quotas and reportedly used bribes, coercion, and even force to meet them. Data show a large increase in sterilizations during the program.
-
2012Journal Article
Mortality After ‘Near-Miss’ Obstetric Complications in Burkina Faso: Medical, Social, and Health-Care Factors
To what extent does surviving a near-miss obstetric complication mean that a maternal death has actually been averted? Our aim was to investigate maternal mortality in the four years after hospital discharge following a near-miss complication in Burkina Faso.
-
2012Journal Article
Effect of a Cash Transfer Programme for Schooling on Prevalence of HIV and Herpes Simplex Type 2 in Malawi: A Cluster Randomised Trial
Lack of education and an economic dependence on men are often suggested as important risk factors for HIV infection in women. We assessed the efficacy of a cash transfer program to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections in young women.
-
2012Working Paper
Microeconomic Foundations of the Demographic Dividend
The potential economic returns to the demographic transition are high. In this paper, we analyze the demographic transition at the household level, investigating the distributional patterns of the economic and welfare benefits associated with the demographic transition across socioeconomic groups within countries and over time.
-
2012Journal Article
Family Planning Outcomes and Primary School Attendance in Sub-Saharan Africa
This study examines the relationship between women’s family planning outcomes and primary school enrollment among their 8-to-11-year-old children. We analyze household-level and wider-context-level data for 103,000 children in 30 sub-Saharan African countries. Negative associations with school enrollment are found for those who have short preceding or succeeding birth intervals, a young sibling, or a mother who is pregnant.
-
January 2012Interview
Bridging Research and Policy: The PopPov Initiative
The Population Reference Bureau, Secretariat of the Population and Poverty Research Initiative (PopPov), produced a video that summarizes the history and goals of PopPov and discusses some key research questions.
-
2012Journal Article
Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity and Perception of Healthy and Desirable Body Size in Urban, Ghanaian Women
To determine if the perceived ideal body size of urban women in Accra, Ghana, influences current body size, researchers used the WHO criteria for BMI and the standardized Stunkard FRS to assess body image in a population of Ghanaian women. Age, relative wealth, being married, having grown up in an urban environment and having parity >2 are associated with higher risk of overweight or obesity. Education level is not associated with overweight status.
-
2012Journal Article
Further Evidence of Community Education Effects on Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa
Earlier investigations have shown associations between a woman’s chance of having a child, or various proximate determinants of her fertility, and the socioeconomic resources in the community in which she lives. This study, which is based on DHS from 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, adds to the knowledge about the proximate determinants of fertility and a community’s socioeconomic resources.
-
2012Journal Article
Who ‘Fills in’ for Siblings and How? A Multilevel Analysis of Personal Network Composition and Its Relationship to Sibling Size
In the midst of widespread fertility decline, I examine the relationship between sibling number and support network composition using data from 25 countries.
-
2012Journal Article
Effect of Maternal Obesity on Neonatal Death in Sub-Saharan Africa: Multivariable Analysis of 27 National Datasets
Rates of obesity are increasing worldwide, including in sub-Saharan Africa. Neonates born to obese mothers in low-income settings are at increased risk of complications. We investigated whether maternal obesity is a risk factor for neonatal death in sub-Saharan Africa.
-
January 2012Book Chapter
Social Networks, Family, and Care Giving Among Older Adults in India
The aim of this chapter is to provide a description of family and network ties among older men and women in India and to illustrate the dynamic interplay between caregiving and receiving among older people.
-
September 2011Journal Article
The association of maternal age with infant mortality, child anthropometric failure, diarrhoea and anaemia for first births: evidence from 55 low- and middle-income countries
To examine the association between maternal age at first birth and infant mortality, stunting, underweight, wasting, diarrhoea and anaemia in children in low- and middle-income countries.
-
September 2011Interview
Women in Accra Work Long Hours for Moderate Wages
Allan Hill and Gunther Fink of Harvard University; Ernest Aryeetey of the University of Ghana; and Kelly Blanchard of Ibis Reproductive Health, analyzed data on women and households to further explain the interaction between sexual activity, reproduction, and labor for productivity at the household level.
-
August 2011Interview
Reproductive Health, Women’s Empowerment, and Economic Prosperity
Duncan Thomas and Elizabeth Frankenberg of Duke University draw on data from family planning and reproductive health programs in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico, and South Africa to measure the impact of these programs on women’s health and well-being.
-
August 2011Working Paper
The Effect of Interventions to Reduce Fertility on Economic Growth
We assess quantitatively the effect of exogenous reductions in fertility on output per capita. Our simulation model allows for effects that run through schooling, the size and age structure of the population, capital accumulation, parental time input into child-rearing, and crowding of fixed natural resources.
-
July 2011Interview
Financial Incentives for Female Births and Parental Investments in Daughters: Evidence From a Program in North India
For over a decade, several states in India have offered financial incentives to discourage preference for sons and to encourage parents to invest in their daughters’ education and health. Nistha Sinha and Joanne Yoong of the World Bank evaluated Apni Beti Apna Dhan (“Our Daughter, Our Wealth”), one such program in the state of Haryana.
-
2011Journal Article
Women’s Property Rights and Gendered Policies: Implications for Women’s Long-Term Welfare in Rural Tanzania
This paper evaluates effects of community-level women’s property and inheritance rights on women’s economic outcomes using a 13 year longitudinal panel from rural Tanzania. Results indicate that changes in women’s property and inheritance rights are significantly associated with women’s employment outside the home, self-employment and earnings. Findings indicate lack of gender equity in sub-Saharan Africa may inhibit economic development for women and society as a whole.
-
2011Dissertation
Essays in Population, Natural Resources, and Economic Growth
This dissertation includes four chapters: How Substitutable Are Fixed Factors in Production? Evidence From Pre-Industrial England; How Relevant Is Malthus for Economic Development Today? (with David N. Weil); The Effect of Interventions to Reduce Fertility on Economic Growth (with Quamrul Ashraf and David N. Weil); and Terms of Trade and Democracy.
-
2011Working Paper
The Impact of Family Planning on Primary School Enrollment in Sub-National Areas Within 25 African Countries
This paper aims to gain understanding on how the availability and use of family planning services in African countries influences the family planning situation of households and, through this, the educational participation of young children. A district panel dataset is used for 441 urban and rural areas within 233 districts of 25 African countries.
-
2011Dissertation
India’s Struggle Against Malnutrition: Is the ICDS Program the Answer?
This paper uses 2005-2006 demographic and health survey data, providing information on child level usage of India’s only national program for combating widespread child malnutrition (ICDS), to assess the impact of its flagship supplementary nutrition program on children’s physical growth.
-
2011Journal Article
District Level Priority Setting Processes and Criteria for Family Planning, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Interventions in Tanzania
This paper seeks to capture and analyze the priority-setting processes and criteria for family planning, maternal, newborn, and child health at district level in Tanzania.
-
2011Dissertation
Health and Economic Effects of Piped Water
Previous studies have been unable to determine piped water’s impact on an individual’s health and economic prosperity because of data limitations. Using data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey, at the individual level, I will analyze the effects of piped water on infant mortality in Indonesia, the long-term effects on later life health and economic outcomes, and how those effects differ by gender.
-
2011Working Paper
Health Outcomes for Children Born to Teen Mothers in Cape Town, South Africa
This paper analyzes the effect of being born to a teen mother on child health outcomes in South Africa. Exploiting the longitudinal nature of the Cape Area Panel Study, we estimate the probability of being a teen mother conditional on pre‐childbirth characteristics. In particular, children born to teens are more likely to be underweight at birth and to be stunted.
-
2011Working Paper
Income Shocks and Adolescent Mental Health
In this paper, the authors investigate the effect of positive income shocks on the mental health of adolescent girls using experimental evidence from a cash transfer program in Malawi.
-
2011Journal Article
Estimating the Costs of Induced Abortion in Uganda
The demand for induced abortions in Uganda is high despite legal and moral proscriptions. These abortions, which are usually unsafe, lead to a high rate of severe complications and use of substantial, scarce healthcare resources. This study estimates the costs associated with induced abortions in Uganda and finds that they are associated with substantial costs, with patients incurring the bulk of the healthcare costs.
-
2011Journal Article
Cash or Condition? Evidence From a Cash Transfer Experiment
This article assesses the role of conditionality in cash transfer programs using a unique experiment targeted at adolescent girls in Malawi. The program featured unconditional transfers and transfers conditional on school attendance.
-
2011Working Paper
Estimating the Effect of Adolescent Fertility on Educational Attainment in Cape Town Using a Propensity Score Weighted Regression
This paper estimates the effect of a teenage birth on the educational attainment of young mothers in Cape Town, South Africa.
-
2011Working Paper
Climate Variability and Infant Mortality in Africa
Changes in heat and precipitation as a result of climate change are expected to have adverse effects on health, particularly among the most vulnerable populations. In this paper we use an extensive dataset of over 400,000 births combined with detailed historical geospatial weather data to investigate the impact of extreme weather events on infant survival in Africa.
-
2011Dissertation
The Cognitive Link Between in Utero Nutrition and Development: Micronutrient Deficiency, Schooling Attainment, and Economic Outcomes in Tanzania
Cognitive development in utero can be affected by maternal folic acid deficiency and can biologically constrain children’s demand for education. Using a more scientifically credible research designed to detect causal effects, we examine how reductions in micronutrient deficiency in utero affect subsequent child schooling attainment in Tanzania.
-
2011Dissertation
Biological, Psychosocial, and Social Capital Implications of the Neighborhood Built Environment
Using ecological, biomarker, and social survey data for Chicago, this dissertation explores the implications of residential location for individual biological, psychosocial, and social well-being for disease, hostile personality, and neighborhood social relations.
-
2011Dissertation
Oportunidades and its Impact on Child Nutrition
Using population-level data from the Mexican Family Life Survey, we examine the impact on child health of a large-scale conditional cash transfer program, Oportunidades.
-
2011Working Paper
Food Crisis, Household Welfare, and HIV/AIDS Treatment: Evidence From Mozambique
Using panel data from Mozambique collected in 2007 and 2008, the authors explore the impact of the food crisis on the welfare of households living with HIV/AIDS. The analysis finds a deterioration of welfare in terms of income, food consumption, and nutritional status among both HIV and comparison households.
-
2011Working Paper
How Substitutable Are Fixed Factors in Production? Evidence From Pre-Industrial England
The extent to which fixed factors of production such as land constrain per-capita income growth has been discussed since Malthus. Limits to growth depend on the substitutability of fixed factors in production and bias toward land-saving technologies. This paper estimates the elasticity of substitution in pre-industrial England.
-
2011Journal Article
Children’s Stunting in Sub-Saharan Africa: Is There an Externality Effect of High Fertility?
This study examines the relationship between women’s family planning outcomes and primary school enrollment among their 8-to-11-year-old children. Data for 103,000 children in 30 sub-Saharan African countries were used. Negative associations with school enrollment are found for those who have short preceding or succeeding birth intervals, a young sibling, or a mother who is pregnant.
-
2011Working Paper
Women’s Economic Resources and Bargaining in Marriage: Does Egyptian Women’s Status Depend on Earnings or Marriage Payments?
Analysis of the 2006 Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey panel data is used to explore the associations between women’s labor market activity, earnings, absolute and proportional marriage payments, and a measure of women’s status within marriage, namely their decisionmaking power.
-
2011Working Paper
Evaluating the Mexico City Policy: How U.S. Foreign Policy Affects Fertility Outcomes and Child Health in Ghana
The Mexico City policy restricts activities of foreign NGOs that receive development assistance. The intent of the policy is to reduce the use of abortion. I find no evidence that any demographic group reduces the use of abortion as a result of the policy, and rural women significantly increase abortions.
-
2011Working Paper
The Influence of Fertility and Household Composition on Female Labor Supply: Evidence From Panel Data on Tanzania
This article studies the impact of fertility on female time allocation to income-generating activities in northern Tanzania. Because of the importance of extended households in African societies, we control for household composition and the position of women in their household.
-
2011Working Paper
Family Planning, Growth, and Income Distribution in Rwanda: SAM Multiplier and Graph Theoretic Path Analysis
This paper examines the links among family planning, sectoral growth, and income distribution in Rwanda. To sum up the findings, investing in family planning health is a viable strategy to promote agricultural growth and reduce poverty through employment created in the rural sector.
-
2011Dissertation
The Effect of Access to AIDS Treatment on Employment Outcomes in South Africa
Little evidence exists on whether antiretroviral drug treatment for AIDS improves employment outcomes in developing countries. In this paper, I examine the labor market effects of the government provision of free ARV treatment in public health clinics in South Africa.
-
2011Dissertation
Long-run Cognitive and Education Impacts of Early Life Public Health Intervention: Evidence From Safe Motherhood Program in Indonesia
Between 1990 and 1996, over 54,000 midwives were introduced in most of Indonesia’s 68,000 villages as part of its safe motherhood strategy. Using the Indonesian Family Life Survey, I examined the long run impacts of the program on cognition and education.
-
2011Journal Article
Provision of Family Planning Services in Tanzania: A Comparative Analysis of Public and Private Facilities
We compared public and private facilities in terms of provision of family planning services, and analyzed data from the health facility questionnaire of the 2006 Tanzania Service Provision Assessment survey.
-
2011Working Paper
Demographic Change and Economic Growth in South Asia
New thinking and evidence have highlighted the powerful contribution that demographic change can make to economic growth, and this line of inquiry has some salient implications for understanding past growth in South Asia and assessing and shaping its future prospects.
-
2011Working Paper
The Relationship Between Fertility and Female Labor Force Participation in Low- to Middle-Income Countries: Uncovering the Heterogeneity Across and Within Countries
In this paper we attempt to uncover the complex relationship that exists between fertility and female labor force participation in low- to middle-income countries. Using the Demographic and Health Surveys, we illustrate the heterogeneity in the relationship across and within countries.
-
2011Journal Article
Public Provision and Protection of Natural Resources: Groundwater Irrigation in Rural India
This paper evaluates the effects of a public groundwater provision program on water tables in northern India, using village-level longitudinal data on aquifers and wells, and examining the limitations of surface pumps.
-
2011Working Paper
Migration and the Transition to Adulthood in Contemporary Malawi
Although research has most often focused on how the timing of school-leaving relates to future well-being, when first marriage and employment occur is also likely to affect well-being at a later time, and yet these two events are under-studied.
-
2011Working Paper
Siyakha Nentsha: Building Economic, Health, and Social Capabilities Among Highly Vulnerable Adolescents in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
This research presents baseline findings from an intervention randomized at the classroom level in peri-urban secondary schools within the Durban metro area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The program is designed to provide vulnerable young people residing in poor, HIV/AIDS-affected communities with increased capabilities for building assets.
-
2011Working Paper
Decisionmaking by Households
Using specially designed population-level longitudinal survey data from Indonesia, we test models of cooperative decisionmaking by households. In the face of shocks, single-adult households tend to reach out to others whereas multiple-adult households tend to consolidate decisionmaking authority.
-
2011Working Paper
Antiretroviral Therapy Awareness and Risky Sexual Behaviors: Evidence From Mozambique
This paper studies the effect of increased access to antiretroviral therapy on risky sexual behavior, using data collected in Mozambique in 2007 and 2008. The findings show that risky sexual behaviors increase in response to the perceived changes in risk associated with increased access to antiretroviral therapy, and that men men and women respond differently to the perceived changes in risk.
-
2011Working Paper
Use of Delivery Care in Tanzania: The Importance of Poverty, Empowerment, and Emergency
This study combines data from a survey and a choice experiment in Tanzania to compare women’s preferences with real choices of delivery care.
-
2011Working Paper
Income Shocks and HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa
Using data on more than 200,000 individuals across 19 sub-Saharan African countries, we present evidence that negative income shocks can lead to substantial increases in HIV prevalence, particularly for women in rural areas.
-
January 2011Working Paper
Family Size, Human Capital, and Growth: Structural Path Analysis of Rwanda
This paper analyzes the role that different household groups play in human capital formation, sectoral growth and income distribution in Rwanda. Using the 2006 SAM of Rwanda, the paper calculates accounting multipliers to characterize the transmission of economic influences stimulated by an exogenous income injection. The paper further explores macroeconomic implications of family size for human capital, sectoral growth and income distribution, drawing on the pathways identified by structural path analysis.
-
2011Working Paper
Population, Poverty, and Sustainable Development: A Review of the Evidence
There is a very large but scattered literature on the economic implications of high fertility. This paper reviews the literature on the effects of high fertility on economic growth in low-income countries and on natural resources; and the effectiveness of family planning programs in lowering fertility.
-
2011Working Paper
Are Indian Farms Too Small? Mechanization, Agency Costs, and Farm Efficiency
New panel data from India are used to examine the relationship between farm size and productivity. Estimates based on appropriately computed labor-shadow prices indicate that while small farms have lower unit labor costs, large farms use substantially less labor per acre, are more mechanized, and are more efficient.
-
2011Working Paper
Throwing the Book at the CSG
We estimate the effect of the child support grant on mothers’ labor supply in South Africa. Balancing tests across the age cut-offs are used to show that there are no significant differences between mothers of eligible and ineligible children in the samples used, over the years.
-
2011Journal Article
Women’s Health Study of Accra: Wave II (WHSA-II)
The first wave of the WHSA was conducted in 2003 and included a household survey of 3,182 women and a clinical examination of 1,328 women, drawn from the same cohort. The follow-up study, WHSA-II builds on Wave-I and was designed to obtain new empirical information on the links between health and wealth at the household level.
-
2011Working Paper
Early Childbearing, Human Capital Attainment, and Mortality Risk
This paper uses a rich longitudinal dataset to examine the relationship between teen fertility and both subsequent educational outcomes and mortality risk in rural South Africa. We find no clear evidence of selectivity into teen childbearing in either schooling trajectories or pre-fertility household characteristics.
-
November 2010Working Paper
Environmental Regulations in China and Their Impact on Air Pollution and Infant Mortality
This study quantifies the impacts of air pollution and related regulations on infant mortality in China.
-
October 2010Journal Article
Does Money Matter? The Effects of Cash Transfers on Child Development in Rural Ecuador
We examine how a government‐run cash transfer program for poor mothers in rural Ecuador influenced the development of young children. Random assignment at the parish level is used to identify program effects.
-
2010Book Chapter
Creating Questions and Protocols for an International Study of Ideas About Development and Family Life
This chapter describes creation and testing of procedures and instruments for use in international comparative research and discusses the implications of the authors’ experience for other researchers who may design international data collections.
-
2010Journal Article
The Contribution of Population Health and Demographic Change to Economic Growth in China and India
We find that a cross-country model of economic growth successfully tracks the growth takeoffs in China and India. The major drivers of the predicted takeoffs are improved health, increased openness to trade, and a rising labor force-to-population ratio due to fertility decline.
-
2010Working Paper
Neighborhoods and Fertility in Accra, Ghana: An AMOEBA-based Approach
Even in a large capital city such as Accra, Ghana, women are having children at a pace well above replacement level, contributing to significant future population growth. Our purpose in this paper is to evaluate the way in which neighborhood context may shape reproductive behavior in Accra.
-
2010Journal Article
Beyond body counts: A qualitative study of lives and loss in Burkina Faso after ‘near-miss’ obstetric complications
This paper examines findings from repeated in-depth interviews with 64 women who survived a clinically defined “near-miss”; the interviews were conducted as part of a study of women who “nearly died” of pregnancy-related complications in Burkina Faso.
-
2010Journal Article
The Short-Term Impacts of a Schooling Conditional Cash Transfer Program on the Sexual Behavior of Young Women
Our results suggest that conditional cash transfer programs not only serve as useful tools for improving school attendance but may also reduce sexual activity, teen pregnancy, and early marriage.
-
2010Working Paper
A Dynamic Structural Model of Contraceptive Use and Employment Sector Choice for Women in Indonesia
This research investigates the impact of the Indonesian family planning program on the labor force participation decisions and contraceptive choices of women.
-
January 2010Journal Article
Economic Growth and Income Distribution: Linking Macroeconomic Models with Household Survey Data at the Global Level
This paper describes in detail the analytical structure of the Global Income Distribution Dynamics (GIDD) model, a global macro-micro modelling framework, and provides some examples of its recent applications.
-
2010Journal Article
Civil Wars Beyond Their Borders: The Human Capital and Health Consequences of Hosting Refugees
The researcher investigated the short-run and long-run causal effects of hosting refugees on outcomes of local children.
-
2010Working Paper
Sex Selective Abortions, Fertility, and Birth Spacing
This paper presents a novel approach that jointly estimates the determinants of sex selective abortions, fertility, and birth spacing, using data from India’s National Family and Health Surveys.
-
2010Working Paper
Child Mobility and Rural Vulnerability in Senegal
Many children leave their parents as part of a household strategy to manage risks. A rural household survey in Senegal aimed to quantify child mobility practices and identify the features of the households from which the children come. Of special concern was the vulnerability of rural households to risks and shocks related to climate.
-
2010Working Paper
Pauvreté et besoins non satisfaits en santé de la reproduction des adolescents et des jeunes en Afrique Centrale
Ce projet s’articule autour des besoins spécifiques des adolescents et jeunes en Afrique Centrale en matière de santé de la reproduction. Il vise à établir le lien avec ces besoins et la pauvreté (dans ses diverses dimensions et à différents niveaux de manifestation), à dégager le profil des adolescents et des jeunes concernés, à tirer un bilan des politiques et programmes actuellement mis en oeuvre sur l’accès de cette population cible aux services et soins de Santé Reproductive (SR), et enfin, à suggérer des stratégies pour améliorer la situation. Le projet s’appuie sur une analyse complémentaire des données socio- démographiques existantes (EDS, MICS, Enquêtes sur le niveau de vie des ménages) et sur une collecte des données originales au moyen d’enquêtes biographiques, qualitatives et situationnelles. Cette collecte de nouvelles données concerne les capitales du Cameroun et du Congo-Brazzaville. Ce premier rapport présente les résultats de l’analyse complémentaire des données existantes. Il détaille les principaux indicateurs utilisés pour documenter les besoins des jeunes en matière de santé de la reproduction, puis présente ces indicateurs sous forme de cartes.
-
2010Journal Article
Capitals Diminished, Denied, Mustered, and Deployed. A Qualitative Longitudinal Study of Women’s Four-Year Trajectories After Acute Health Crisis, Burkina Faso
This article presents findings from longitudinal qualitative research conducted in Burkina Faso, and explores the trajectories of 16 women in the aftermath of costly acute health care episodes.
-
2010Working Paper
China’s Marriage Market and Upcoming Challenges for Elderly Men
The authors examine the anticipated effects of bride shortage and hypergamy for different regions of China. Their projections indicate that unmarried males will likely be concentrated in poorer provinces with low fiscal ability to provide social protection to their citizens.
-
2010Working Paper
Perception of HIV Risk and the Quantity and Quality of Children: The Case of Rural Malawi
Based on longitudinal micro data on mothers and their children in rural Malawi, we find that variation in mothers’ reported HIV risk reduces both child quality, as reflected in children’s schooling and health, and child quantity, when the perceived risk is already moderate or high.
-
2010Working Paper
The Fertility Transition Around the World, 1950-2005
In this paper we analyze the distribution of fertility rates across the world and demonstrate the existence of twin peaks and the division of the world’s countries in two distinct components: a high-fertility regime and a low-fertility regime.
-
2010Book Chapter
Intergenerational Effects of the 1959-61 China Famine
Recent studies have documented the long-term economic effects of maternal and infant malnutrition. Little is known, however, about whether such effects have intergenerational persistence. Effects of mother’s famine exposure are stronger than the effects of father’s famine exposure, and the negative effects for boys are much stronger than for girls.
-
2010Journal Article
Introduction to Special Issue of the European Journal of Population: ‘Economic Consequences of Low Fertility in Europe’
This special issue of the European Journal of Population focuses on possible economic consequences of low fertility in Europe.
-
2010Journal Article
Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health Interventions and Services: Moving From Knowledge of What Works to Systems That Deliver
There are many uncertainties and even disagreements about how maternal, neonatal, and child health services and interventions should be scaled up. This paper describes the existence of eight tensions that underlie these uncertainties and disagreements, and makes three sets of recommendations.
-
2010Working Paper
Fertility, the Demographic Dividend, and Economic Growth
Researchers found that reducing fertility by one child per women increases income per capita by about 20 percent. Most of the income gain is due to an increased number of workers per capita, because of a lower youth dependency ratio, and higher female labor force participation.
-
2010Journal Article
Endemic Diseases and African Economic Growth: Challenges and Policy Responses
Africa bears a heavy burden of disease. In 2006, life expectancy at birth was 50 years in sub Saharan Africa. Over the last five decades, most of the developing world made remarkable strides in catching up to rich-country standards of health. But Africa has become sicker as the rest of the world continues to become healthier.
-
2010Working Paper
HIV Services Delivery and Overall Quality of Care and Satisfaction in Burkina Faso: Are There Privileged Patients?
Forty-three health facilities delivering antiretroviral treatment in Burkina Faso or about to do so were surveyed in 2006. Researchers found that patients visiting for HIV services receive on average better quality than others, but this finding does not imply that HIV services had a negative impact on other health services.
-
2010Working Paper
Fertility and Women’s Labor Force Participation in a Low-Income Rural Economy
This study examines changes in fertility and childbearing on the labor force participation of women in rural Bangladesh. Contrary to much previous research, fertility has little or no impact on female labor force participation.
-
March 2009Report
Population Dynamics and Economic Development: Filling the Research Gaps
Prepared by Shareen Joshi, with support from Rachel Nugent and Meghan Cagley, for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and its partners, the paper summarized progress-to-date on the research agenda on population, reproductive health, and economic development.
-
March 2009Working Paper
Long-Term Financial Incentives and Investment in Daughters
Since the early 1990s, several states in India have introduced financial incentive programs to discourage son preference among parents and encourage investment in daughters’ education and health. This study evaluates one such program in the state of Haryana, Apni Beti Apna Dhan (Our Daughter, Our Wealth).
-
2009Journal Article
Demand and Unmet Need for Means of Family Limitation in Rwanda
Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa, with substantial annual population growth. Negative attitudes toward family planning and failing structures of provision are the dominant constraints on the use of modern contraceptives in Rwanda.
-
2009Working Paper
Analyse de la situation des menages ruraux de la region de Kolda en vue d’une operation – test de transfert monetaire (Cash transfer)
La présente étude entre dans le cadre des efforts entrepris par l’Unicef en vue d’appuyer efficacement, en particulier dans le domaine de la protection des enfants, l’Etat du Sénégal dans sa lutte contre la pauvreté. Cette assistance privilégie la région naturelle de Casamance constituée par les régions administratives de Ziguinchor et Kolda (ancienne région de Kolda). Ces deux régions, longtemps confrontées à ce qui est appelée « la crise casamançaise » Situation des ménages de la région de Kolda Page 7 sur 68 Etude Unicef/FAFO/ENEA, 2009 (insécurité) et à l’enclavement, enregistrent selon les documents officiels, les taux les plus élevés de pauvreté (supérieure à la moyenne nationale) : respectivement 67,1% et 66,5% Ladite assistance est articulée autour des priorités déclinées par le Sénégal à travers le Document de Stratégie pour la croissance et la Réduction de la Pauvreté (DSRP II) 2006/2010, notamment au niveau de l’axe III spécifique à la « Protection sociale, Prévention et gestion des risques et catastrophes » dans la partie Composante de la stratégie nationale de protection sociale notamment en ce qui concerne le renforcement des mécanismes de transfert direct des ressources en faveur des groupes vulnérables et l’améliorer la capacité de réponse aux chocs et risques pour les groupes vulnérables1. Les mesures édictées par l’Etat sont déclinées dans le tableau suivant tiré du DSRP II.
-
2009Journal Article
Incontinence and Trauma: Sexual Violence, Female Genital Cutting, and Proxy Measures of Gynecological Fistula
This paper examines the co-occurrence of incontinence and two potential sources of trauma: sexual violence and female genital cutting in Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Ethiopia. Results indicate that sexual violence is a significant determinant of incontinence in Rwanda and Malawi, but not in Uganda. In contrast, no evidence is found that female genital cutting contributes to incontinence.
-
2009Journal Article
How Relevant Is Malthus for Economic Development Today?
The Malthusian model had a long period of success, covering most of human history in most of the world until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In this paper, we ask whether the model has any relevance to the world today.
-
2009Book Chapter
Population Health and Economic Growth
Improvements in health may be as important as improvements in income when thinking about development and human welfare. Although good health is a goal in its own right—independent of its relationship with income—the link between health and income is important for policy purposes.
-
2009Working Paper
Disease and Development Revisited
Allowing for conditional convergence, exogenous improvements in health due to technical advances associated with the epidemiological transition increased income levels.
-
2009Journal Article
Demographic Change and Economic Growth in Asia
Focusing on East Asia, researchers re-examined the role of the demographic transition in contributing to cross-country differences in economic growth through to 2005.
-
2009Journal Article
Fertility, Female Labor Force Participation, and the Demographic Dividend
Removing legal restrictions on abortion significantly reduces fertility and estimate that, on average, a birth reduces a woman’s labor supply by almost 2 years during her reproductive life.
-
2009Working Paper
The Consequences of Severe Obstetric Complications in Burkina Faso and Benin
This briefing paper describes the experiences of women who have suffered from severe obstetric complications in Burkina Faso and Benin, and compares a range of health, economic, and social indicators with women who experienced uncomplicated births.
-
2009Book Chapter
Population, Poverty Reduction, and the Cairo Agenda
Reproductive Health and Human Rights: The Way Forward critically reflects on the past 15 years of international efforts aimed at improving health, alleviating poverty, diminishing gender inequality, and promoting human rights.
-
2009Working Paper
Schooling and Sexual Behavior in South Africa: The Role of Peer Effects
This study examines the influence of exposure to older peers on sexual debut in urban South Africa.
-
2009Journal Article
Investments, Time Preferences, and Public Transfers Paid to Women
To disentangle the effect of additional income in a household from the effect of changing the distribution of income within the household, the impact of cash transfers on savings and investments decisions is compared with all other income sources.
-
2009Working Paper
Adolescent Girls Health Agenda: Study on Intergenerational Health Impacts
In this document, we provide a series of tables of results detailing child health outcomes and mothers’ characteristics as risk factors.
-
2009Book Chapter
Social Exclusion: The Gendering of Adolescent HIV Risks in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Links among community social cohesion, group membership, and HIV risk behaviors were investigated among 14-to-18-year-old females and males in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
-
2009Working Paper
Fertility and Women’s Labor Force Participation in Developing Countries
Researchers found that preference for children of multiple sexes and sons are predominant factors in determining how women adjust their fertility decisions to the outcome of their first two births.
-
2009Journal Article
Development, Modernization, and Childbearing: The Role of Family Sex Composition
A data set covering 64 countries and some 5 million births was used to show that fertility behavior responds to the presence—or absence—of sons in many regions of the developing world, particularly in Central and South Asia.
-
2009Book Chapter
Women and Development
Using a common framework of cost-benefit analysis, a team of leading economists, including five Nobel Prize winners, assess the attractiveness of a wide range of policy options for combating 10 the world’s biggest problems:
-
2009Journal Article
The Cost of Low Fertility in Europe
Researchers analyzed the effect of fertility on income per capita with a particular focus on the experience of Europe.
-
2009Dissertation
Issues in Assessing the Relationship Between Economic Status and HIV Infection in Sub-Saharan Africa
This dissertation comprises three studies that investigate potential issues in the assessment of the relationship between economic status and HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa.
-
2009Journal Article
Distance Threshold for the Effect of Urban Agriculture on Elevated Self-Reported Malaria Prevalence in Accra, Ghana
Irrigated urban agriculture, which has helped alleviate poverty and increase food security in rapidly urbanizing sub-Saharan Africa, may inadvertently support malaria vectors.
-
2009Dissertation
Welfare Consequences of Co-residing With the Mother-in-Law in Patriarchal Joint Families for Women and Children: Evidence From India and Bangladesh
This dissertation explores the effects of inter-generational, within gender, power dynamics on the welfare of women and children of India and Bangladesh.
-
2009Dissertation
Essays in Maternal Health and Human Rights: Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa
This compilation of essays focuses on programs, policies and emerging issues which center on gender equity and women’s empowerment as broad themes within the larger realm of maternal health and human rights.
-
2009Journal Article
Do Women Increase Their Use of Reproductive Health Care When It Becomes More Available? Evidence From Indonesia
Data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey are used to investigate the impact of a major expansion in access to midwifery services on women’s use of antenatal care and delivery assistance.
-
2009Working Paper
Effects of Reproductive Health Outcomes on Primary School Attendance: A Sub-Saharan Africa Perspective
Multilevel analyses revealed substantially decreased attendance rates of boys and girls with short preceding and succeeding birth intervals, with more siblings, with a young sibling present and with a pregnant mother.
-
2009Journal Article
Políticas de población, programas gubernamentales y fecundidad : una comparación entre el Brasil y México
This article estimates the impact of the implementation of family planning programs on trends in fertility among women in various segments of society in Brazil and in Mexico. Mexico implemented family planning programs in the 1970s, whereas Brazil had no population policies. Differences in fertility by socioeconomic group are sharper in the Brazilian states than in the Mexican ones. The study concludes that family planning policies reduce the differences in fertility among women of different socioeconomic groups.
-
September 2008Working Paper
Development, Modernization, and Son Preference in Fertility Decisions
This study focuses on one measure of son preference in the developing world, namely the likelihood of continued childbearing given the gender composition of existing children in the family.
-
2008Journal Article
Researching the Determinants of Vulnerability to HIV Amongst Adolescents
Adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa are among the groups most vulnerable to HIV. Those who reside in households most affected by AIDS are often the most poor and socially disconnected, and many also have been orphaned by one or both parents.
-
2008Dissertation
Aggregate Effects of AIDS on Development
The AIDS epidemic reduces per capita income by as much as 12% at its peak, and slows the transition from agriculture to industry by about one century for the most highly infected countries.
-
2008Journal Article
Rapid Population Growth Raises the Stakes for African Governments
The new millennium has started out well for Africa. Democracy is making steady progress, GDP per capita is growing, foreign investment is rising, and inflation has dropped.
-
2008Journal Article
The Growing Phenomenon of Private Tutoring: Does it Deepen Human Capital, Widen Inequalities, or Waste Resources?
This survey of the literature examines the extent of private tutoring, identifies the factors that explain its growth, and analyzes its cost-effectiveness in improving student academic performance.
-
2008Working Paper
Is the Developing World Catching Up? Global Convergence and National Rising Dispersion
This study used a microsimulation model to understand global income distribution, and found that there will be a reduction in global income inequality by 2030.
-
2008Working Paper
Migration and the Equilibrium Prevalence of Infectious Diseases
This paper models how migration both influences and responds to differences in disease prevalence between cities, regions, and countries.
-
2008Journal Article
When Does Improving Health Raise GDP?
This research assessed the effect of exogenous health improvements on output per capita, and found that the effects of improved health on income per capita are substantially lower and may not emerge for three decades or more after initial improvements.
-
2008Working Paper
Risk and Risk Management: The Theoretical Approaches of Different Disciplines and Their Relevance to the Empirical Study of Rural Vulnerability in West Africa
In 1999 the World Bank released the first in a series of papers and articles on risk by economists Robert Holzmann and Steen Lau Jørgensen. But no mention was made of sociological risk research.
-
2008Dissertation
Three Essays on Children’s Well-Being in Developing Countries
Several factors that increase the prevalence of poverty and threaten children’s well-being persist in the developing world. This dissertation focuses on the consequences of fertility and risks on health and human capital formation in three developing countries.
-
2008Journal Article
Pregnancy-Related School Dropout and Prior School Performance in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Using data from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, this paper examines the factors associated with pregnancy among schoolgirls, as well as the likelihood of school dropout and subsequent re-enrollment among pregnant schoolgirls.
-
2008Journal Article
Improvements of Techniques to Estimate Migration Rates: An Application With Brazilian Censuses Data
This paper intends to develop procedures which can be applied to different countries and databases to estimate migration rates using information on place of previous residence and duration of residence.
-
2008Working Paper
Can Expansion of Markets for Groundwater Decelerate the Depletion of Groundwater Resource in Rural India?
Researchers have found that, in India, fixed costs for water transactions are decreasing and broader markets result in less depletion of acquifers.
-
2008Working Paper
Social Interactions and Fertility in Developing Countries
There is strong evidence that, in addition to individual and household characteristics, social interactions are important in determining fertility rates.
-
May 2007Working Paper
Does Money Matter? The Effects of Cash Transfers on Child Health and Development in Rural Ecuador
The authors examine how a government-run cash transfer program targeted to poor mothers in rural Ecuador influenced the health and development of their children.
-
2007Working Paper
Gender, Intrahousehold Decisionmaking, and the Demand for Children
Male involvement in the decision to seek out family planning services can lead to a substantial reduction in family planning use, especially if husbands wanted more children than their wives.
-
2007Book Chapter
Household Responses to the Financial Crisis in Indonesia Longitudinal Evidence on Poverty, Resources, and Well-Being
After almost three decades of sustained economic growth, Indonesia experienced a major economic and financial crisis in the late 1990s, when per capita GDP fell by about 15 percent, bringing the economy back to its 1994 level.
-
2007Working Paper
Realizing the Demographic Dividend: Is Africa Any Different?
Researchers tested whether the determinants of growth in general, and the effects of demography in particular, are different in Africa than for the rest of the world.
-
2007Working Paper
Demographic Change and the Structure of Wages: A Demand-Theoretic Analysis for Brazil
Changing relative supply of workers by age group and education can affect labor costs. Researchers used data on 502 local Brazilian labor markets to examine the extent of substitution among demographic groups as relative labor supply has changed.
-
2006Dissertation
The Hidden Cost of Migration: Effect of Brother’s Migration on Sister’s Marriage Outcomes in Rural Bangladesh
This paper examines the effect of brother’s migration on the marriage patterns of sisters in a rural area of Bangladesh.
-
July 2005Report
Population Dynamics and Economic Development: Elements of a Research Agenda
This report from the Center for Global Development outlines a research agenda to investigate the relationship between reproductive health and population dynamics.
-
Report
PopPov: Forging Research Partnerships
The Population and Poverty Research Initiative (PopPov) has supported a global group of researchers looking at how population dynamics affect economic outcomes. This video follows the academic and professional successes that PopPov-funded researchers have experienced over their 10-year history.