Intergenerational Persistence in Child Mortality
- (pp. 93-110)
Abstract
We study the intergenerational persistence of inequality by estimating grandmother-mother associations in the loss of a child, using pooled data from 119 Demographic and Health Surveys in 44 developing countries. Compared with compatriots of the same age, women with at least one sibling who died in childhood face 39 percent higher odds of having experienced at least one own-child death, or 7 percentage points at age 49. Place fixed effects reduce estimated mortality persistence by 47 percent; socioeconomic covariates explain far less. Within countries over time, persistence falls with aggregate child mortality, so that mortality decline disproportionately benefits high-mortality lineages.Citation
Lu, Frances, and Tom Vogl. 2023. "Intergenerational Persistence in Child Mortality." American Economic Review: Insights, 5 (1): 93-110. DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20210604Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I12 Health Behavior
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- J62 Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration