IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/amerec/v57y2012i2p154-170.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Changes in Condom Availability Affect Short-Term Fertility? Evidence from Rwanda

Author

Listed:
  • Steven Mello

Abstract

This paper examines the increase in condom supply resulting from the DELIVER project's activity in Rwanda. In particular, I examine whether increases in the availability of condoms affected short-term fertility for women in Rwanda or generated changes in the distribution of births among mothers of certain characteristics. Using Measure DHS survey data, I exploit location-specific variation in the change in condom supply between 2000 and 2005 using a difference-in-differences framework. Via probit methodology, I find some evidence that increases in condom availability reduced short-term fertility and reallocated births, with a higher percentage of births accruing to women with some secondary education. However, closer examination of the data suggests that these results may be driven by increases in stimuli to demand for contraceptives rather than by increases in condom supply. On one hand, this is consistent with the generally accepted argument in development economics today that fertility outcomes are determined more so by demand-side factors than by access to contraceptives. On the other hand, my findings refute a more staunch version of this hypothesis, as they suggest that either increases in condom supply, increases in exposure to family planning advertisements in the media, or a combination of both, yielded changes in fertility behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Mello, 2012. "Do Changes in Condom Availability Affect Short-Term Fertility? Evidence from Rwanda," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 57(2), pages 154-170, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:amerec:v:57:y:2012:i:2:p:154-170
    DOI: 10.1177/056943451205700202
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/056943451205700202
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/056943451205700202?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. Cleland, John G. & van Ginneken, Jerome K., 1988. "Maternal education and child survival in developing countries: The search for pathways of influence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 27(12), pages 1357-1368, January.
    2. Cristian Pop-Eleches, 2010. "The Supply of Birth Control Methods, Education, and Fertility: Evidence from Romania," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(4), pages 971-997.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Susanna M Makela & Rakhi Dandona & T R Dilip & Lalit Dandona, 2013. "Social Sector Expenditure and Child Mortality in India: A State-Level Analysis from 1997 to 2009," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(2), pages 1-10, February.
    2. Maria C. Lo Bue, 2024. "Drivers of changes in child nutritional conditions: A panel data‐based study on Indonesian households, 1997–2014," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 741-776, May.
    3. Mitrut, Andreea & Wolff, François-Charles, 2011. "The impact of legalized abortion on child health outcomes and abandonment. Evidence from Romania," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1219-1231.
    4. Catia Nicodemo & Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2022. "Correlates of repeat abortions and their spacing: Evidence from registry data in Spain," Papers 2208.05567, arXiv.org, revised May 2023.
    5. Jayanta Kumar Bora & Rajesh Raushan & Wolfgang Lutz, 2019. "The persistent influence of caste on under-five mortality: Factors that explain the caste-based gap in high focus Indian states," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(8), pages 1-20, August.
    6. Jeroen Klomp & Jakob De Haan, 2008. "Effects of Governance on Health: a Cross‐National Analysis of 101 Countries," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 599-614, November.
    7. Clarke, Damian & Mühlrad, Hanna, 2021. "Abortion laws and women’s health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Frost, Michelle Bellessa & Forste, Renata & Haas, David W., 2005. "Maternal education and child nutritional status in Bolivia: finding the links," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 395-407, January.
    9. Hannum, Emily & Buchmann, Claudia, 2005. "Global Educational Expansion and Socio-Economic Development: An Assessment of Findings from the Social Sciences," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 333-354, March.
    10. Heaton, Tim B. & Forste, Renata & Hoffmann, John P. & Flake, Dallan, 2005. "Cross-national variation in family influences on child health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 97-108, January.
    11. Chandan Kumar & Prashant Kumar Singh & Rajesh Kumar Rai, 2012. "Under-Five Mortality in High Focus States in India: A District Level Geospatial Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-15, May.
    12. Aysıt Tansel & Deniz Karaoğlan, 2019. "The Effect of Education on Health Behaviors and Obesity in Turkey: Instrumental Variable Estimates from a Developing Country," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(5), pages 1416-1448, December.
    13. Skoufias,Emmanuel & Vinha,Katja Pauliina, 2020. "Child Stature, Maternal Education, and Early Childhood Development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9396, The World Bank.
    14. Libertad González Luna & Sergi Jiménez-Martín & Natalia Nollenberger & Judit Vall Castello, 2018. "The effect of abortion legalization on fertility, marriage and long-term outcomes for women," Economics Working Papers 1607, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    15. Chalasani, Satvika, 2012. "Understanding wealth-based inequalities in child health in India: A decomposition approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2160-2169.
    16. Naushin Mahmood & M. Faramurz K. Kiani, 1994. "Health Care Determinants of Child Survival in Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 759-771.
    17. Manisha Chakrabarty & Sumon Kumar Bhaumik, 2012. "Whither human capital? The woeful tale of transition to tertiary education in India," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(9), pages 835-838, June.
    18. Martine Audibert & Robert Kolesar, 2017. "Post-neonatal Mortality Impacts Following Grants from the Gavi Vaccine Alliance: An Econometric Analysis from 2000 to 2014," Working Papers halshs-01484982, HAL.
    19. Makate, Marshall & Makate, Clifton, 2016. "The causal effect of increased primary schooling on child mortality in Malawi: Universal primary education as a natural experiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 72-83.
    20. Simona Rasciute, 2023. "Parental education and child health: The exploration of the cross‐gender intergenerational transmission mechanism," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(4), pages 642-658, November.

    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:sae:amerec:v:57:y:2012:i:2:p:154-170. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/aex .

    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.