IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/ecdecc/doi10.1086-662578.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sharing the Burden of Parental Death: Intrafamily Effects of HIV/AIDS Orphans on Fertility and Child Quality

Author

Listed:
  • Olumide Taiwo

Abstract

This paper estimates the effect of orphan supply in family networks through parental death on fertility and the quality of children of surviving adults using data from Malawi. To address the potential problem of joint determination of both fertility and mortality, we exploit differences between the patrilineal and matrilineal lineage systems in the composition of family networks and in the structure of contingent obligations. Comparing mortality effects in the matrilineal and patrilineal lineage systems, we find that supply of young orphans in family networks significantly reduces demand for children by surviving adults and raises the quality of their biological children. We do not find any effect when adult mortality does not generate orphans, suggesting that the estimates are indeed orphan effects. Our results from Malawi, a country with moderately high rates of HIV/AIDS incidence, suggest that the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa may reduce fertility through adoptive care of AIDS orphans in extended family networks.

Suggested Citation

  • Olumide Taiwo, 2012. "Sharing the Burden of Parental Death: Intrafamily Effects of HIV/AIDS Orphans on Fertility and Child Quality," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(2), pages 279-309.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/662578
    DOI: 10.1086/662578
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/662578
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/662578
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/662578?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Akresh, 2009. "Flexibility of Household Structure: Child Fostering Decisions in Burkina Faso," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(4).
    2. Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan, 2012. "AIDS, “reversal” of the demographic transition and economic development: evidence from Africa," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(3), pages 871-897, July.
    3. Anne Case & Christina Paxson & Joseph Ableidinger, 2004. "Orphans in Africa: parental death, poverty, and school enrollment," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(3), pages 483-508, August.
    4. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 1985. "Expectations, Life Expectancy, and Economic Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 100(2), pages 389-408.
    5. repec:pri:cheawb:case_paxson_orphansafrica is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Deininger, Klaus & Garcia, Marito & Subbarao, K., 2003. "AIDS-Induced Orphanhood as a Systemic Shock: Magnitude, Impact, and Program Interventions in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 1201-1220, July.
    7. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_paxson_orphansafrica.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Pollak, Robert A, 1985. "A Transaction Cost Approach to Families and Households," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 581-608, June.
    9. Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1988. "Risk, Implicit Contracts and the Family in Rural Areas of Low-income Countries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 98(393), pages 1148-1170, December.
    10. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_paxson_orphansafrica is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Christopher Ksoll, 2007. "Family Networks and Orphan Caretaking in Tanzania," Economics Series Working Papers 361, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    12. Takashi Yamano, 2007. "The long‐term impacts of orphanhood on education attainment and land inheritance among adults in rural Kenya," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 37(2‐3), pages 141-149, September.
    13. David Lam & Jeffrey Miron & Ann Riley, 1994. "Modeling Seasonality in Fecundability, Conceptions, and Births," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 31(2), pages 321-346, May.
    14. Andrew D. Foster & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2001. "Imperfect Commitment, Altruism, And The Family: Evidence From Transfer Behavior In Low-Income Rural Areas," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(3), pages 389-407, August.
    15. Alwyn Young, 2005. "The Gift of the Dying: The Tragedy of AIDS and the Welfare of Future African Generations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 423-466.
    16. Rodrigo Soares, 2006. "The effect of longevity on schooling and fertility: evidence from the Brazilian Demographic and Health Survey," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(1), pages 71-97, February.
    17. repec:pri:cheawb:case_paxson_orphansafrica.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bryan McCannon & Zachary Rodriguez, 2016. "A Lasting Effect of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: Orphans and Pro-Social Behavior," Working Papers 16-10, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    2. Bose-Duker, Theophiline & Henry, Michael & Strobl, Eric, 2021. "Child fostering and the educational outcomes of Jamaican children," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

    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. Okada, Keisuke, 2012. "The effects of female HIV/AIDS status on fertility and child health in Cambodia," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 560-570.
    2. Quamrul H. Ashraf & Ashley Lester & David N. Weil, 2009. "When Does Improving Health Raise GDP?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2008, Volume 23, pages 157-204, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Belgi Turan, 2020. "Life expectancy and economic development: Evidence from microdata," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 949-972, August.
    4. Boucekkine, Raouf & Laffargue, Jean-Pierre, 2010. "On the distributional consequences of epidemics," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 231-245, February.
    5. Kathleen Beegle & Joachim Weerdt & Stefan Dercon, 2010. "Orphanhood and human capital destruction: Is there persistence into adulthood?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(1), pages 163-180, February.
    6. Dick Durevall & Annika Lindskog, 2016. "Adult Mortality, AIDS, and Fertility in Rural Malawi," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 54(3), pages 215-242, September.
    7. Durevall, Dick & Lindskog, Annika, 2009. "How Does Communal HIV/AIDS Affect Fertility? - Evidence from Malawi," Working Papers in Economics 369, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics, revised 25 Aug 2009.
    8. Lauren Gaydosh, 2015. "Childhood Risk of Parental Absence in Tanzania," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(4), pages 1121-1146, August.
    9. Kathleen Beegle & Joachim De Weerdt & Stefan Dercon, 2006. "Orphanhood and the Long-Run Impact on Children," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(5), pages 1266-1272.

    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:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/662578. 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/EDCC .

    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.