TY - JOUR
T1 - Birth spacing and neonatal mortality in India
T2 - Dynamics, frailty and fecundity
AU - Bhalotra, S.
AU - van Soest, A.H.O.
N1 - Appeared earlier as CentER DP 2005-06
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Using microdata on 30,000 child births in India and dynamic panel data models, we analyze causal effects of birth spacing on subsequent neonatal mortality and of mortality on subsequent birth intervals, controlling for unobserved heterogeneity. Right censoring is accounted for by jointly estimating a fertility equation, identified by using data on sterilization. We find evidence of frailty, fecundity, and causal effects in both directions. Birth intervals explain only a limited share of the correlation between neonatal mortality of successive children in a family. We predict that for every neonatal death, 0.37 additional children are born, of whom 0.30 survive.
AB - Using microdata on 30,000 child births in India and dynamic panel data models, we analyze causal effects of birth spacing on subsequent neonatal mortality and of mortality on subsequent birth intervals, controlling for unobserved heterogeneity. Right censoring is accounted for by jointly estimating a fertility equation, identified by using data on sterilization. We find evidence of frailty, fecundity, and causal effects in both directions. Birth intervals explain only a limited share of the correlation between neonatal mortality of successive children in a family. We predict that for every neonatal death, 0.37 additional children are born, of whom 0.30 survive.
M3 - Article
SN - 0304-4076
VL - 143
SP - 274
EP - 290
JO - Journal of Econometrics
JF - Journal of Econometrics
IS - 2
ER -