Birth Spacing, Fertility and Neonatal Mortality in India: Dynamics, Frailty and Fecundity

Sonia Bhalotra and Arthur van Soest ()

No 2163, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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

Keywords: birth spacing; fertility; neonatal mortality; dynamic panel data models; health; siblings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C33 I12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2006-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published - published in: Journal of Econometrics, 2008, 143 (2), 274-290

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Related works:
Journal Article: Birth-spacing, fertility and neonatal mortality in India: Dynamics, frailty, and fecundity (2008)
Working Paper: Birth Spacing, Fertility and Neonatal Mortality in India:Dynamics, Frailty and Fecundity (2007)
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