[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erg/wpaper/665.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Inequality of Opportunity in Child Health in the Arab World and Turkey

Author

Listed:
  • Ragui Assaad

    (University of Minnesota)

  • Caroline Krafft

    (Department of Economics, St. Catherine University)

  • Nadia Belhaj Hassine
  • Djavad Salehi-Isfahan
Abstract
Health and nutrition during a child’s first years are crucial to his/her health and wellbeing later in life. Growth and development in childhood is determined by both genotype (nature) and phenotype (nurture), with the influence of the latter being particularly crucial during a child’s first few years (Martorell and Habicht 1986). In this paper, we examine the patterns of inequality of opportunity in health and nutrition outcomes, such as height-for-age and weight-for-height, for children under five in selected Arab Countries and Turkey, using Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data. Our objective is to decompose inequality into a portion that is due to inequality of opportunity, and a portion due to other factors, such as random variations in health. Inequality of opportunity is defined as in Romer (1998) as the inequality that is due to differences in circumstances, such as parental characteristics, household wealth, place of birth and gender. We measure inequality using decomposable general entropy measures, such as Theil’s-L and Theil’s-T indices. We use both parametric and non-parametric decomposition methods to determine the share of inequality of opportunity in total inequality. The results show that different levels and trends are evident across countries in both overall inequality and in the share of inequality of opportunity. Inequality of opportunity is shown to contribute substantially to the inequality of child health outcomes, but its share in total inequality varies significantly, both across and within countries over time. To further highlight the relative contribution of circumstances to the inequality of child health outcomes in different countries, we simulate height and weight outcomes for a most and least advantaged child in each context. Since these simulations observed circumstances at their best and worst levels, the larger the difference in predicted outcomes between the most and least advantaged child, the greater the inequality of opportunity facing children in that country.

Suggested Citation

  • Ragui Assaad & Caroline Krafft & Nadia Belhaj Hassine & Djavad Salehi-Isfahan, 2012. "Inequality of Opportunity in Child Health in the Arab World and Turkey," Working Papers 665, Economic Research Forum, revised 2012.
    • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:665
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/665.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://bit.ly/2mf6ZaC
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Strauss & Duncan Thomas, 1998. "Health, Nutrition, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(2), pages 766-817, June.
    2. Jorge M. Aguero & Michael R. Carter & Ingrid Woolard, 2006. "The Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers on Nutrition: The South African Child Support Grant," SALDRU Working Papers 8, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    3. Daniele Checchi & Vito Peragine, 2010. "Inequality of opportunity in Italy," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(4), pages 429-450, December.
    4. O'Donnell, Owen & Nicolás, Ángel López & Van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2009. "Growing richer and taller: Explaining change in the distribution of child nutritional status during Vietnam's economic boom," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 45-58, January.
    5. Mark McGillivray & Indranil Dutta & Nora Markova, 2009. "Health inequality and deprivation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(S1), pages 1-12, April.
    6. Chris Elbers & Peter Lanjouw & Johan Mistiaen & Berk Özler, 2008. "Reinterpreting between-group inequality," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 6(3), pages 231-245, September.
    7. Rahaman, M.M. & Aziz, K.M. & Munshi, M.H. & Patwari, Y. & Rahman, M., 1982. "A diarrhea clinic in rural Bangladesh: influence of distance, age, and sex on attendance and diarrheal mortality," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 72(10), pages 1124-1128.
    8. Nadia Belhaj Hassine, 2012. "Inequality of Opportunity in Egypt," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 26(2), pages 265-295.
    9. Ragui Assaad & Caroline Krafft & Nadia Belhaj Hassine & Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, 2012. "Inequality of Opportunity in Child Health in the Arab World and Turkey," Middle East Development Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 1250006-121, January.
    10. Elizabeth Frankenberg & Duncan Thomas, 2001. "Women’s health and pregnancy outcomes: Do services make a difference?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 38(2), pages 253-265, May.
    11. Harsha Aturupane & Anil B. Deolalikar & Dileni Gunewardena, 2008. "The Determinants of Child Weight and Height in Sri Lanka: A Quantile Regression Approach," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-53, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Jérémie Gignoux, 2011. "The Measurement Of Inequality Of Opportunity: Theory And An Application To Latin America," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 57(4), pages 622-657, December.
    13. Milagros Nores & Steven W. Barnett, 2012. "Benefits of Early Childhood Interventions Across the World: (Under) Investing in the Very Young," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 1, pages 200-228.
    14. Pradhan, Menno & Sahn, David E. & Younger, Stephen D., 2003. "Decomposing world health inequality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 271-293, March.
    15. David M. Blau & David K. Guilkey & Barry M. Popkin, 1996. "Infant Health and the Labor Supply of Mothers," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(1), pages 90-139.
    16. Jean-Yves Duclos & Abdelkrim Araar, 2006. "Poverty and Equity," Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Well-Being, Springer, number 978-0-387-33318-2, July.
    17. Paul Glewwe, 1999. "Why Does Mother's Schooling Raise Child Health in Developing Countries? Evidence from Morocco," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(1), pages 124-159.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ebaidalla M. Ebaidalla, 2019. "Inequality of opportunity in child health in Sudan: Across-region study," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-86, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Caroline Krafft, 2022. "The determinants of inequality in child nutrition status: Evidence from Jordan," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 112-132, February.
    3. Caroline Krafft, 2015. "The Determinants of Child Health Disparities in Jordan," Working Papers 950, Economic Research Forum, revised Sep 2015.
    4. Ebaidalla, Ebaidalla M., 2023. "Inequality of Opportunity in Child Health in Sudan: Across-Region Study," Journal of Economic Development, The Economic Research Institute, Chung-Ang University, vol. 48(1), pages 59-83, March.
    5. Pérez-Mesa, David & Marrero, Gustavo A. & Darias-Curvo, Sara, 2021. "Child health inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 108801, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Balcázar, Carlos Felipe, 2015. "Lower bounds on inequality of opportunity and measurement error," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 102-105.
    7. David Pérez-Mesa & Gustavo A. Marrero & Sara Darias-Curvo, 2020. "Child health inequality and opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers 557, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    8. Hussien, Abdurohman & Ayele, Gashaw, 2016. "Inequality of Opportunity in child Health in Ethiopia," MPRA Paper 86592, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Djavad Salehi-Isfahani & Nadia Belhaj Hassine, 2012. "Equality of Opportunity in Education in the Middle East and North Africa," Working Papers e07-33, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Department of Economics.
    10. Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Vito Peragine, 2015. "Equality of opportunity: Theory and evidence," Working Papers 359, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    11. Marrero,Gustavo Alberto & Rodríguez,Juan Gabriel & Van Der Weide,Roy, 2021. "Does Race and Gender Inequality Impact Income Growth ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9865, The World Bank.
    12. Deniz Karaoğlan & Dürdane Şirin Saraçoğlu, 2018. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: the Case of Turkey," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(3), pages 1051-1075, June.
    13. Ragui Assaad & Caroline Krafft & John Roemer & Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, 2016. "Inequality of Opportunity in Income and Consumption: the Middle East and North Africa Region in Comparative Perspective," Working Papers 1003, Economic Research Forum, revised May 2016.
    14. Hassine, Nadia Belhaj, 2014. "Economic inequality in the Arab region," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6911, The World Bank.
    15. Song, Yang & Zhou, Guangsu, 2019. "Inequality of opportunity and household education expenditures: Evidence from panel data in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 85-98.
    16. Paolo Brunori & Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Vito Peragine, 2013. "Inequality of Opportunity, Income Inequality, and Economic Mobility: Some International Comparisons," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Eva Paus (ed.), Getting Development Right, chapter 0, pages 85-115, Palgrave Macmillan.
    17. Dirk Van de gaer & Xavier Ramos, 2020. "Measurement of inequality of opportunity based on counterfactuals," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 55(3), pages 595-627, October.
    18. Paul Hufe & Andreas Peichl & John Roemer & Martin Ungerer, 2017. "Inequality of income acquisition: the role of childhood circumstances," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 49(3), pages 499-544, December.
    19. Francisco Ferreira & Jérémie Gignoux & Meltem Aran, 2011. "Measuring inequality of opportunity with imperfect data: the case of Turkey," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(4), pages 651-680, December.
    20. Divya Balasubramaniam & Santanu Chatterjee & David B. Mustard, 2020. "Public Versus Private Investment in Determining Child Health Outcomes: Evidence from India," Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice, , vol. 19(1), pages 28-60, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:665. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sherine Ghoneim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erfaceg.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.