IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v19y2010is1p159-180.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Family planning and fertility decline in rural Iran: the impact of rural health clinics

Author

Listed:
  • Djavad Salehi‐Isfahani
  • M. Jalal Abbasi‐Shavazi
  • Meimanat Hosseini‐Chavoshi

Abstract

During the first few years of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and aided by pro‐natal government policies, Iranian fertility was on the rise. In a reversal of its population policy, in 1989, the government launched an ambitious and innovative family planning program aimed at rural families. By 2005, the program had covered more than 90% of the rural population and the average number of births per rural woman had declined to replacement level from about 8 births in the mid 1980s. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of a particular feature of the program – health houses – on rural fertility, taking advantage of the variation in the timing of their construction across the country. We use three different methods to obtain a range of estimates for the impact of health houses on village‐level fertility: difference‐in‐differences (DID), matching DID, and length of exposure. We find estimates of impact ranging from 4 to 20% of the decline in fertility during 1986–1996. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Djavad Salehi‐Isfahani & M. Jalal Abbasi‐Shavazi & Meimanat Hosseini‐Chavoshi, 2010. "Family planning and fertility decline in rural Iran: the impact of rural health clinics," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(S1), pages 159-180, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:19:y:2010:i:s1:p:159-180
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.1613
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.1613
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.1613?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. Smith, Jeffrey & E. Todd, Petra, 2005. "Does matching overcome LaLonde's critique of nonexperimental estimators?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 305-353.
    2. Wagstaff, Adam & Lindelow, Magnus & Jun, Gao & Ling, Xu & Juncheng, Qian, 2009. "Extending health insurance to the rural population: An impact evaluation of China's new cooperative medical scheme," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 1-19, January.
    3. Schultz, T Paul, 1994. "Human Capital, Family Planning, and Their Effects on Population Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 255-260, May.
    4. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra E. Todd, 1997. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(4), pages 605-654.
    5. Shareen Joshi & T. Paul Schultz, 2007. "Family Planning as an Investment in Development: Evaluation of a Program's Consequences in Matlab, Bangladesh," Working Papers 951, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    6. Esther Duflo, 2000. "Child Health and Household Resources in South Africa: Evidence from the Old Age Pension Program," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 393-398, May.
    7. Schultz, T. Paul, 2008. "Population Policies, Fertility, Women's Human Capital, and Child Quality," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 52, pages 3249-3303, Elsevier.
    8. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    9. Angeles, Gustavo & Guilkey, David K & Mroz, Thomas A, 2005. "The Effects of Education and Family Planning Programs on Fertility in Indonesia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(1), pages 165-201, October.
    10. Gustavo Angeles & David Guilkey & Thomas Mroz, 2005. "The determinants of fertility in rural Peru: Program effects in the early years of the national family planning program," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 18(2), pages 367-389, June.
    11. Lucia Breierova & Esther Duflo, 2003. "The Impact of Education on Fertility and Child Mortality: Do Fathers Really Matter Less Than Mothers?," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 217, OECD Publishing.
    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. Djavad Salehi-Isfahani & Nadia Belhaj Hassine, 2012. "Equality of Opportunity in Education in the Middle East and North Africa," Working Papers e07-33, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Department of Economics.
    2. Djavad Salehi-Isfahani & Nadia Hassine & Ragui Assaad, 2014. "Equality of opportunity in educational achievement in the Middle East and North Africa," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 12(4), pages 489-515, December.
    3. Laura Juarez & Paulina Lopez, 2024. "The impact of a rural clinic expansion on the fertility of young rural women in Mexico," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 117-142, March.
    4. Martha J. Bailey, 2013. "Fifty Years of Family Planning: New Evidence on the Long-Run Effects of Increasing Access to Contraception," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 44(1 (Spring), pages 341-409.
    5. Mahdi Majbouri & Sanaz Fesharaki, 2019. "Iran’s Multi-ethnic Mosaic: A 23-Year Perspective," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(3), pages 831-859, October.
    6. Djavad Salehi-Isfahani & Sara Taghvatalab, 2019. "Education and the allocation of time of married women in Iran," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 889-921, September.
    7. Mahdi Majbouri, 2019. "Twins, family size and female labour force participation in Iran," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 387-397, January.
    8. Shahram Moeeni & Maryam Moeeni, 2021. "The Impact of Intra-household Bargaining Game on Progression to Third Birth in Iran," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 61-72, March.
    9. Social Policy and Population Section, Social Development Division, ESCAP., 2015. "Asia-Pacific Population Journal Volume 30, No. 1," Asia-Pacific Population Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 30(1), pages 1-130, June.
    10. Bancalari, Antonella & Bernal, Pedro & Celhay, Pablo & Martinez, Sebastian & Sánchez, María Deni, 2024. "An Ounce of Prevention for a Pound of Cure: Basic Health Care and Efficiency in Health Systems," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13433, Inter-American Development Bank.
    11. Ali Hashemi & Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, 2013. "From Health Service Delivery to Family Planning: The Changing Impact of Health Clinics on Fertility in Rural Iran," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(2), pages 281-309.
    12. Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi & Abbas Askari Nodoushan & Arland Thornton, 2012. "Family life and developmental idealism in Yazd, Iran," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 26(10), pages 207-238.

    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. Herrera Catalina & E. Sahn David, 2017. "Working Paper 281 - Early Childbearing, School Attainment and Cognitive Skills," Working Paper Series 2398, African Development Bank.
    2. Catalina Herrera Almanza & David E. Sahn, 2018. "Early Childbearing, School Attainment, and Cognitive Skills: Evidence From Madagascar," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(2), pages 643-668, April.
    3. Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Zhao, Jun, 2020. "Doubly robust difference-in-differences estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 219(1), pages 101-122.
    4. Caroline Krafft, 2020. "Why is fertility on the rise in Egypt? The role of women’s employment opportunities," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 1173-1218, October.
    5. Mano, Yukichi & Akoten, John & Yoshino, Yutaka & Sonobe, Tetsushi, 2014. "Teaching KAIZEN to small business owners: An experiment in a metalworking cluster in Nairobi," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 25-42.
    6. Francesco Vona & Giovanni Marin & Davide Consoli, 2019. "Measures, drivers and effects of green employment: evidence from US local labor markets, 2006–2014," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(5), pages 1021-1048.
    7. Gnawali, Devendra Prasad & Pokhrel, Subhash & Sié, Ali & Sanon, Mamadou & De Allegri, Manuela & Souares, Aurélia & Dong, Hengjin & Sauerborn, Rainer, 2009. "The effect of community-based health insurance on the utilization of modern health care services: Evidence from Burkina Faso," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(2-3), pages 214-222, May.
    8. Shareen Joshi & T. Schultz, 2013. "Family Planning and Women’s and Children’s Health: Long-Term Consequences of an Outreach Program in Matlab, Bangladesh," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(1), pages 149-180, February.
    9. Chen, Yuyu & Jin, Ginger Zhe, 2012. "Does health insurance coverage lead to better health and educational outcomes? Evidence from rural China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 1-14.
    10. Schultz, T. Paul, 2010. "Population and Health Policies," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4785-4881, Elsevier.
    11. Xudong Rao & Yuehua Zhang, 2020. "Livestock insurance, moral hazard, and farmers’ decisions: a field experiment among hog farms in China," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 45(1), pages 134-156, January.
    12. Sarah Alkenbrack & Magnus Lindelow, 2015. "The Impact of Community‐Based Health Insurance on Utilization and Out‐of‐Pocket Expenditures in Lao People's Democratic Republic," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(4), pages 379-399, April.
    13. Aradhna Aggarwal, 2010. "Impact evaluation of India's ‘Yeshasvini’ community‐based health insurance programme," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(S1), pages 5-35, September.
    14. Abebaw, Degnet & Fentie, Yibeltal & Kassa, Belay, 2010. "The impact of a food security program on household food consumption in Northwestern Ethiopia: A matching estimator approach," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 286-293, August.
    15. Saxena, Vibhor & Bindal, Ishaan & LeMay-Boucher, Philippe, 2020. "Social groups and credit shocks: Evidence of inequalities in consumption smoothing," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 311-326.
    16. Oliveira, Rodrigo & Moura, Klebson & Viana, Jorge & Tigre, Robson & Sampaio, Breno, 2015. "Commute duration and health: Empirical evidence from Brazil," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 62-75.
    17. David SAHN & Catalina HERRERA, 2014. "The Impact of Early Childbearing on Schooling and Cognitive Skills among Young Women in Madagascar," Working Papers 201428, CERDI.
    18. Jaikishan Desai & Alessandro Tarozzi, 2011. "Microcredit, Family Planning Programs, and Contraceptive Behavior: Evidence From a Field Experiment in Ethiopia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(2), pages 749-782, May.
    19. repec:ags:bdbjaf:279932 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Kornelius Kraft & Julia Lang, 2016. "Just a Question of Selection? The Causal Effect of Profit Sharing on a Firm's Performance," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 444-467, July.
    21. Bundervoet, Tom, 2014. "What explains Rwanda's drop in fertility between 2005 and 2010 ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6741, The World Bank.

    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:wly:hlthec:v:19:y:2010:i:s1:p:159-180. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    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.