Fertility, Reproductive Health, and Socioeconomic Outcomes
This program aims to engender more evidence-based research on how reproductive choices and demographic changes affect poverty and socioeconomic outcomes in developing countries. The program is funded by the Hewlett Foundation under a Trust Fund executed by the Bank. The individual studies are also co-funded by the Bank and other sponsors.
1. Marriage, Fertility, and Household Economics in the Time of HIV/AIDS
Marriage transitions and HIV/AIDS in Malawi explores the fertility outcomes and socio-economic consequences associated with marriage in Malawi, including incidence of HIV/AIDS, and the variation in outcome by the characteristics of marriages; with data collection. Researchers: Kathleen Beegle and Berk Özler.
2. Demographic Change and Women's Labor Force Participation
Demographic change and women’s labor force participation examines the impact of changes in fertility and childbearing practices on women’s labor force participation, using the experiment in Bangladesh. Researchers: Mattias Lundberg, Nistha Sinha and Elizabeth King.
Fertility and women's labor supply (Powerpoint presentation) Children provide labor for current consumption and a means of support in old age. The need to care for a child restricts the time that a mother can devote to paid labor, inside or outside the home.But the need to provide care diminishes as the child grows, permitting the mother to return to work. As demand for skilled labor increases with development, wages rise - so does the opportunity cost of time, including the time required to raise children. Researchers: Maria Porter and Elizabeth King.
3. Impact of Family Size on Child Welfare and Other Child Outcomes Â
Fertility decline and rising child sex ratios in China: Socio-economic consequences as these cohorts age. In recent decades, fertility decline in China has fuelled a sharp increase in the proportions of ‘missing girls’. This means that increasing proportions of the boys born will be unable to marry, and will face old age without the economic and other support normally provided by wives and children. However, we know little about the potential socio-economic consequences of this impending change in the marriage markets. This study will use the successive Chinese censuses to analyze (1) the projected socio-economic of the unmarried men, and (2) their geographic distribution. This will allow an analysis of whether the unmarried men are likely to be especially in need of safety nets or able to provide for their own old age, and also whether they are likely to be concentrated in provinces that are better resourced for supporting safety nets for the disadvantaged --- or in poorer provinces which are least able to offer employment or safety nets. In the latter case, men will be left with meager ability to save for their old age, no wife or children to help support them, and limited safety nets. Researchers: Monica Das Gupta, Avraham Ebenstein, and Ethan Jennings.
Determining the impact of family size on child welfare across the developing world explores the impact of family size on child welfare outcomes, such as neonatal and non-neonatal infant mortality, child mortality, and anthropometric measures of child nutritional status. Researchers: Deon Filmer, Jed Friedman and Norbert Schady.
Family size and investments in early childhood development in Ecuador assess how family size interacts with the use of the ECD interventions and explains how it mediates the impact of those interventions on child cognitive outcomes, using impact evaluation methods; with data collection. Researchers: Christina Paxson and Norbert Schady.
4. Demographic Trends, Economic Growth, and Distribution Dynamics: Cross country analysis
Demographic trends, economic growth and distribution dynamicsanalyzes the economic impacts of a delayed or a quickened decline in fertility rates in developing countries, using a combination of macro models (economy-wide general equilibrium models) and micro models (based on household survey data). Researchers: Maurizio Bussolo, Rafael E. De Hoyos Navarro, Denis Medvedev, Dominique van der Mensbrugghe and David S. Horowitz.
Preliminary results presented at April 22, 2008 workshop drafts included
Background papers:
Schultz, Paul T. 2007. "Fertility in Developing Countries." Yale University Economic Growth Center Discussion Paper No. 953. (May).Â
The program guidelines lay out the research domains, approaches, development and governance structure, and selection criteria and process for studies.
Selected Policy Research Working Papers (Please use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view PDF files) The following policy research working papers are drawn from the World Bank's institutional archives. Each link opens a page with an abstract of the document and several download options.
PDF files)
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