IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/popdev/v46y2020i2p347-371.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Birth Spacing and Child Health Trajectories

Author

Listed:
  • Ray Miller
  • Mahesh Karra

Abstract

Using longitudinal data on a cohort of over 4,000 children from four low‐ and middle‐income countries, we document the association between birth spacing and child growth trajectories. We find declines in child height at age 1 among children who are born within three years of an older sibling. However, we also observe catch‐up growth for closely spaced children as they age. We find no evidence that catch‐up growth is driven by remedial health investments after birth, suggesting substitutability in underlying biological processes. We also find that very widely spaced children (preceding birth interval of more than seven years) are similar in height at age 1 as children who are spaced three to seven years apart, but outgrow their more closely spaced counterparts as they age. However, further sibling comparisons suggest that the growth premium that is observed for very widely spaced children may be driven by unobserved confounding factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Ray Miller & Mahesh Karra, 2020. "Birth Spacing and Child Health Trajectories," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 46(2), pages 347-371, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:popdev:v:46:y:2020:i:2:p:347-371
    DOI: 10.1111/padr.12335
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12335
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/padr.12335?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. Joseph Molitoris & Kieron J. Barclay & Martin Kolk, 2018. "When birth spacing does and does not matter for child survival: an international comparison using the DHS," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2018-003, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    2. Stefan Öberg, 2015. "Sibship size and height before, during, and after the fertility decline," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(2), pages 29-74.
    3. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    4. Case, Anne & Fertig, Angela & Paxson, Christina, 2005. "The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 365-389, March.
    5. Miller, Ray, 2017. "Childhood Health and Prenatal Exposure to Seasonal Food Scarcity in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 350-376.
    6. Kasey S. Buckles & Elizabeth L. Munnich, 2012. "Birth Spacing and Sibling Outcomes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 47(3), pages 613-642.
    7. T. Paul Schultz, 2002. "Wage Gains Associated with Height as a Form of Health Human Capital," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 349-353, May.
    8. Anne Case & Darren Lubotsky & Christina Paxson, 2002. "Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the Gradient," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1308-1334, December.
    9. Joseph Molitoris, 2017. "The Effect of Birth Spacing on Child Mortality in Sweden, 1878–1926," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 43(1), pages 61-82, March.
    10. Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1986. "Birth Spacing and Sibling Inequality: Asymmetric Information within the Family," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 27(1), pages 55-76, February.
    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. Ojha, Manini & Babbar, Karan, 2023. "Power to choose? Examining the link between contraceptive use and domestic violence," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1336, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. Mookerjee, Mehreen & Ojha, Manini & Roy, Sanket, 2023. "Family planning practices: Examining the link between contraception and child health," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    3. Chowdhury, Sourav & Kasemi, Nuruzzaman & Singh, Aditya & Chakrabarty, Mahashweta & Singh, Shivani, 2023. "Decomposing the gap in undernutrition among under-five children between EAG and non-EAG states of India," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    4. Pan, Zheng & Jiang, Xiandeng & Zhao, Ningru, 2021. "Does birth spacing affect female labor market participation? Evidence from urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(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. Deniz Karaoğlan & Dürdane Şirin Saraçoğlu, 2018. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: the Case of Turkey," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(3), pages 1051-1075, June.
    2. Deniz Karaoğlan & Dürdane Şirin Saracoğlu, 2016. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: The Case of Turkey," ERC Working Papers 1614, ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University, revised 2016.
    3. Sirin Saracoglu & Deniz KARAOĞLAN**, 2017. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: The Case Of Turkey," EcoMod2017 10749, EcoMod.
    4. Orla Doyle & Nick Fitzpatrick & Judy Lovett & Caroline Rawdon, 2015. "Early intervention and child health: Evidence from a Dublin-based randomized controlled trial," Working Papers 201505, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    5. Nicole Black & Johannes S. Kunz, 2019. "The Intergenerational Effects of Language Proficiency on Child Health Outcomes," Monash Economics Working Papers 05-19, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    6. Heather Brown, 2020. "Understanding the role of policy on inequalities in the intergenerational correlation in health and wages: Evidence from the UK from 1991–2017," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, June.
    7. Till Stowasser & Florian Heiss & Daniel McFadden & Joachim Winter, 2014. "Understanding the SES Gradient in Health Among the Elderly: The Role of Childhood Circumstances," NBER Chapters, in: Discoveries in the Economics of Aging, pages 187-219, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. David Cutler & Angus Deaton & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2006. "The Determinants of Mortality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(3), pages 97-120, Summer.
    9. Laura R. Wherry & Bruce D. Meyer, 2016. "Saving Teens: Using a Policy Discontinuity to Estimate the Effects of Medicaid Eligibility," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(3), pages 556-588.
    10. Lucia Schiavon, 2020. "Maternal Postpartum Depression Effects on Child's Health," CHILD Working Papers Series 83 JEL Classification: I1, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    11. van Kippersluis, Hans & Van Ourti, Tom & O'Donnell, Owen & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2009. "Health and income across the life cycle and generations in Europe," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 818-830, July.
    12. Lindeboom, Maarten & Llena-Nozal, Ana & van der Klaauw, Bas, 2006. "Disability and Work: The Role of Health Shocks and Childhood Circumstances," IZA Discussion Papers 2096, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Arendt, Jacob Nielsen, 2008. "In sickness and in health--Till education do us part: Education effects on hospitalization," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 161-172, April.
    14. Kyriakos C. Neanidis & Stephen M. Miller, 2012. "Demographic Transition and Economic Welfare: The Role of Humanitarian Aid," Working Papers 1201, University of Nevada, Las Vegas , Department of Economics.
    15. Ma, Yuanyuan & Nolan, Anne & Smith, James P., 2018. "The value of education to health: Evidence from Ireland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 14-25.
    16. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    17. Fletcher, Jason M. & Lehrer, Steven F., 2009. "The Effect of Adolescent Health on Educational Outcomes: Causal Evidence using ‘Genetic Lotteries’ between Siblings," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2009-40, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 26 Jun 2009.
    18. Dora L. Costa, 2015. "Health and the Economy in the United States from 1750 to the Present," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(3), pages 503-570, September.
    19. Del Bono, Emilia & Francesconi, Marco & Ermisch, John, 2008. "Intrafamily resource allocations: a dynamic model of birth weight," ISER Working Paper Series 2008-27, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    20. Kim, Young-Joo, 2016. "The long-run effect of education on obesity in the US," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 100-109.

    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:bla:popdev:v:46:y:2020:i:2:p:347-371. 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://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0098-7921 .

    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.