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09 DEMOGRAPHY, February 1999, Vol. 36, N° 1
00.09.1 - PITT, Mark M.; KHANDKER, Shahidur R.; McKERNAN, Signe-Mary; ABDUL LATIF, M.
Credit programs for the poor and reproductive behavior in low-income countries: Are the reported causal relationships the result of heterogeneity bias?.
Group-based lending programs for the poor have drawn much attention recently. As many of these programs target women, an important research question is whether program participation signicantly changes reproductive behavior and whether the gender of the participant matters. Using survey data from 87 Bangladeshi villages, we estimate the impact of female and male participation in group-based credit programs on reproductive behavior while attending to issues of set-selection and endogeneity. We find no evidence that women's participation in group-based credit programs increases contraceptive use or reduces fertility. Men's participation reduces fertility and may slightly increase contraceptive use.
English - pp. 1-21.
M. M. Pitt, Department of Economics, Box B, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, U.S.A.
Mark_Pitt@brown.edu.
(BANGLADESH, POVERTY, AID PROGRAMMES, CREDIT, REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOUR, CONTRACEPTIVE USAGE, SEX DIFFERENTIALS.)
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00.09.2 - MROZ, Thomas A.; BOLLEN, Kenneth A.; SPEIZER, Ilene S.; MANCINI, Dominic J.
Quality, accessibility, and contraceptive use in rural Tanzania.
We examine how informants' reports on community perceptions of the quality and accessibility of family planning facilities relate to the use of modern contraceptives by individuals in rural Tanzania. Using information on individual-level contraceptive use in conjunction with community-level information on the accessibility and quality of family planning facilities, we employ two distinct statistical procedures to illustrate the impacts of accessibility and quality on contraceptive use. Both procedures treat the community-level variables as imperfect indicators of characteristics of the facilities, and they yield nearly identical implications. We find that a communitylevel, subjective perception of a family planning facility's quality has a significant impact on community members' contraceptive use whereas other community measures such as time, distance, and subjective perception of accessibility have trivial and insignificant direct impacts, net of the control variables. Future research that uncovers the determinants of perceptions of both community-level and individual-level quality could provide key insights for developing effective and efficient family planning programs.
English - pp. 23-40.
T. A. Mroz, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 123 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-3997, U.S.A.
tom_mroz@unc.edu.
(TANZANIA, RURAL ENVIRONMENT, PROGRAMME EVALUATION, FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMMES, CONTRACEPTIVE USAGE.)
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00.09.3 - PALLONI, Alberto; RAFALIMANANA, Hantamala.
The effects of infant mortality on fertility revisited: New evidence from Latin America.
In this paper, we examine empirical evidence for a relation between infant and child mortality and fertility in Latin American countries from 1920 to 1990. We investigate the relation at several levels of aggregation and evaluate the extent to which evidence at one level is consistent with evidence at other levels. We first examine aggregate cross-country information over several decades, a type of data typically used in past research on the topic. We also examine yearly series of births, deaths, infant deaths, and socioeconomic indicators for selected countries to track the association between short-term fluctuations in fertility and infant mortality. Finally, we use micro-level data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) to assess the relation between fertility and child mortality from individual reproductive histories. The evidence we assemble from these different data sets is remarkably consistent and suggests small positive effects of infant mortality on fertility. These effects, however, may be too small to support the hypothesis that changes in child mortality are of more than modest importance in the process of fertility decline in Latin America in the late 20th century.
English - pp. 41-58.
A. Palloni, Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1393, U.S.A.
palloni@ssc.wisc.edu.
(LATIN AMERICA, FERTILITY DECLINE, INFANT MORTALITY, CHILD MORTALITY, FERTILITY DETERMINANTS.)
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00.09.4 - MORGAN, Philip S.; RINDFUSS, Ronald R.
Reexamining the link of early childbearing to marriage and to subsequent fertility.
Using data from the 1980, 1985, and 1990 Current Population Surveys, we show that the link between early fertility and nonmarital births has become stronger. Women who give birth earlier are increasingly likely to be unmarried. In contrast, we find a weaker association between first births at young (versus older) ages and (1) a rapid pace of subsequent childbearing and (2) higher completed fertility. We discuss possible causes and consequences of these changes.
English - pp. 59-75.
S. P. Morgan, Duke University, Department of Sociology, 268 Soc-Psych Building, Box 90088, Durham, NC 27708-0088, U.S.A.
pmorgan@soc.duke.edu.
(UNMARRIED MOTHERS, MATERNAL AGE, ADOLESCENT FERTILITY, MARRIAGE, FERTILITY DETERMINANTS.)
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00.09.5 - HAYWARD, Mark D.; HERON, Melonie.
Racial inequality in active life among adult Americans.
Is a shorter life with more years lived in poor health a defining attribute of the life cycle of disadvantaged groups? Based on the 1990 5% Public Use Microdata Survey, we develop life table models of healthy (or active) life for the major racial groups, by sex, in the United States. The analysis underscores the complexity of the relationship between morbidity and mortality in the population. For Asians, longer life is associated with fewer years lived in poor health. In contrast, Native Americans' relatively longer lives are accompanied by extended periods of chronic health problems. Of all racial groups, blacks live the fewest years, and they live a high proportion of those years with a chronic health problem. Hispanics also live substantially fewer years, yet the period of life they spend with a health problem is relatively compressed. Racial differences in the link between morbidity and mortality point to the importance of investigating how chronic diseases and disease prevention and treatment are related to active life across the population subgroups.
English - pp. 77-91.
M. D. Hayward, Department of Sociology and Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, U.S.A.
hayward@pop.psu.edu.
(UNITED STATES, LIFE EXPECTANCY, HEALTH, MORBIDITY, MORTALITY, RACES, SOCIAL DIFFERENTIATION.)
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00.09.6 - KRIVO, Lauren J.; KAUFMAN, Robert L.
How low can it go? Declining black-white segregation in a multiethnic context.
We extend research on whites' neighborhood contact with blacks, population composition, and prospects for desegregation by developing a new measure of the floor of racial residential segregation under conditions of low black-white contact. The measure incorporates the way in which multiethnic contexts further constrain levels of black-white segregation. The results show that black-white desegregation is likely when the black population is small, but is unlikely otherwise. Yet, when multiple ethnic groups are sufficiently large, a moderate level of black-white segregation is necessary for whites to maintain low neighborhood contact with blacks, even when the proportion of African Americans is small.
English - pp. 93-109.
L. J. Krivo and R. L. Kaufman, Department of Sociology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, U.S.A.
krivo.l@osu.edu; kaufman.3@osu.edu.
(UNITED STATES, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, SEGREGATION, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, ETHNIC COMPOSITION.)
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00.09.7 - VAN HOOK, Jennifer; GLICK, Jennifer E.; BEAN, Frank D.
Public assistance receipt among immigrants and natives: How the unit of analysis affects research findings.
Differences between immigrant and native households in rates of welfare receipt depend on nativity differences in individual-level rates of receipt, in household size, in mean number of recipients in receiving households, and in household nativity composition. We present algebraic derivations of these relationships and use data from the 1990 and 1991 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to examine empirically the extent to which levels of welfare receipt for immigrants and natives are sensitive to the use of household-, family-, or individual-level units of analysis or presentation. The findings show that nativity differences are statistically significant only at the level of larger units. The results also indicate that if immigrants and natives had identical living arrangements, immigrants' household-level receipt of Supplemental Security Income would significantly exceed natives' receipt even more than it actually does, but the nativity difference in receipt of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) would reverse directions. Moreover, the level of AFDC receipt of immigrant households falls significantly below that of native households when native-born children living in households headed by immigrants are treated as if they were foreign born.
English - pp. 111-120.
J. Van Hook, The Urban Institute, 2100 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037, U.S.A.
jvanhook@ui.urban.org.
(UNITED STATES, FOREIGNERS, IMMIGRANTS, SOCIAL SECURITY, HOUSEHOLD COMPOSITION.)
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00.09.8 - REHNER IVERSEN, Roberta; FURSTENBERG, Frank F., Jr.; BELZER, Alisa A.
How much do we count? Interpretation and error-making in the decennial census.
Following a critique of the 1990 decennial census procedures, we conducted a field study among low-income, inner-city residents in 1991 to examine how they conceptualized and managed the civic task of census response. Interpretations about the purpose and meaning of the census, about commitment to the task, and about connection to government, singly and together with literacy skills (e.g., reading and general literacy competence), were associated errors that are not detectable by evaluative methodologies used regularly by the Census Bureau. The validity and reliability of census data, and possibly other self-administered survey research, will be increased by greater use of knowledge about both interpretation and literacy skills in formulating data collection procedures.
English - pp. 121-134.
R. Rehner Iversen, School of Social Work, University of Pennsylvania, 3701 Locust Walk, Philadelphie, PA 19104-6214, U.S.A.
riversen@ssw.upenn.edu.
(UNITED STATES, POPULATION CENSUS, METHODOLOGY, DATA COLLECTION, QUALITY OF DATA, ERRORS.)
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00.09.9 - RENDALL, Michael S.; CLARKE, Lynda; PETERS, H. Elizabeth; RANJIT, Nalini; VERROPOULOU, Georgia.
Incomplete reporting of men's fertility in the United States and Britain: A research note.
We evaluate men's retrospective fertility histories from the British Household Panel Survey and the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Further, we analyze the PSID men's panel-updated fertility histories for their possible superiority over retrospective collection. One third to one half of men's nonmarital births and births within previous marriages are missed in estimates from retrospective histories. Differential survey underrepresentation of previously married men compared with previously married women accounts for a substantial proportion of the deficits in previous-marriage fertility. More recent retrospective histories and panel-updated fertility histories improve reporting completeness, primarily by reducing the proportion of marital births from unions that are no longer intact at the survey date.
English - pp. 135-144.
M. S. Rendall, Department of Sociology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, U.S.A.
rendall@pop.psu.edu.
(UNITED KINGDOM, UNITED STATES, MEN, FERTILITY MEASUREMENTS, DATA COLLECTION, EVENT HISTORY SURVEYS, UNDERENUMERATION.)
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