Measuring Overcrowding in Households with Children: Official vs. Actual Thresholds in the Ecuadorian Case

This paper reports research into the official (more than three people per bedroom, ppb) compared to the actual classification of household overcrowding using a developing country as a case of study. In this respect, the aim of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, using the official Ecuadorian household overcrowding threshold, we explore the association between household overcrowding and a well-being variable. Secondly, we identify and compare whether this official threshold corresponds to the actual level at which the well-being variable seems to be affected. To do so, we use a probit regression in which our well-being variable, young children’s respiratory health, depends on household overcrowding. We find that overcrowding is positively associated with the incidence of respiratory diseases in children at a level of α=1%. Always using the official classification of overcrowding (3 ppb), marginal effect analysis indicates that, for two hypothetical households with at least one 0- to 5-year-old child with average values in terms of the other estimates, the predicted probability of having a child with a respiratory disease is 0.0022 greater for an overcrowded household than in one that is not. With respect to our second objective, we find that the threshold at which household density starts to affect the incidence of respiratory disease in children is 1.33 ppb, which is significantly lower than the official classification of over 3 ppb. In conclusion, the Ecuadorian government and other authorities that have established their household overcrowding classification arbitrarily should re-evaluate their official criteria, setting a threshold at which household density starts to deteriorate the health outputs of the household members. In fact, it may be useful to discuss and incorporate a refined definition of overcrowding, which could include other considerations than just density (e.g., an age limit for children for sharing a bedroom and gender separation), taking the restrictions of a developing country into account, in this case. Moreover, an official classification that reflects the social reality allows accurate policies, goals and strategies to be established to improve household overcrowding.