Early Childbirth, Health Inputs and Child Mortality: Recent Evidence from Bangladesh

44 Pages Posted: 5 Jul 2007

See all articles by Pushkar Maitra

Pushkar Maitra

Monash University - Department of Economics

Sarmistha Pal

University of Surrey; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: June 2007

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between early childbearing and child mortality in Bangladesh, a country where adolescent childbearing is of particular concern. We argue that effective use of specific health inputs could however significantly lower child mortality rates even among adolescent women. This offers an attractive policy option particularly when compared to the costly alternative of delaying age at marriage. In particular, we find that women having early childbirth tend to use health inputs differently from all other women. After correcting for this possible selectivity bias, the adverse effects of early childbirth on child mortality are reversed. The favourable effects of use of health inputs however continue remain statistically significant.

Keywords: family formation, adolescent childbearing, hospital delivery, child vaccination, child mortality, selectivity bias, unobserved heterogeneity, correlated estimates

JEL Classification: D13, I12, O15

Suggested Citation

Maitra, Pushkar and Pal, Sarmistha, Early Childbirth, Health Inputs and Child Mortality: Recent Evidence from Bangladesh (June 2007). IZA Discussion Paper No. 2841, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=998229 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.998229

Pushkar Maitra

Monash University - Department of Economics ( email )

Wellington Road
Clayton, Victoria 3
Australia
61 3 9905 5832 (Phone)
61 3 9905 5476 (Fax)

Sarmistha Pal (Contact Author)

University of Surrey ( email )

Stag Hill
Guildford, England GU2 7XH
United Kingdom
01483 683995 (Phone)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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