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Impact of Fertility on Objective and Subjective Poverty in Malawi

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  • Richard Mussa

Abstract

The paper uses data from the Second Malawi Integrated Household Survey (IHS2) to investigate the impact of fertility on poverty in rural Malawi. We use two measures of poverty; the objective and the subjective. After accounting for endogeneity of fertility by using son preference as an instrumental variable, we find that fertility increases the probability of being objectively poor. This effect is robust for all poverty lines used. It is also robust to accounting for economies of scale and household composition as well as assuming that poverty is continuous. We also find that when fertility is treated as an exogenous variable its impact is underestimated. When poverty is measured subjectively, the results are opposite to those of objective poverty. We find that fertility lowers the likelihood of feeling poor, and that fertility is exogenous with respect to subjective poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Mussa, 2010. "Impact of Fertility on Objective and Subjective Poverty in Malawi," SALDRU Working Papers 50, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    • Handle: RePEc:ldr:wpaper:50
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    Cited by:

    1. Mussa, Richard, 2017. "Poverty in Malawi: Policy Analysis with Distributional Changes," MPRA Paper 75980, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. World Bank Group, 2017. "Republic of Malawi Poverty Assessment," World Bank Publications - Reports 26488, The World Bank Group.
    3. KUEPIE Mathias & SAIDOU HAMADOU Théophile, 2013. "The impact of fertility on household economic status in Cameroon, Mali and Senegal," LISER Working Paper Series 2013-20, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    4. Chenhong Peng & Paul S. F. Yip & Yik Wa Law, 2020. "What Factors Beyond Economic Poverty Lead People in High-income Societies to Feel Poor? Evidence from Hong Kong," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 991-1027, December.
    5. Mussa, Richard, 2017. "Poverty and Inequality in Malawi: Trends, Prospects, and Policy Simulations," MPRA Paper 75979, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Frank‐Borge Wietzke, 2020. "Poverty, Inequality, and Fertility: The Contribution of Demographic Change to Global Poverty Reduction," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 46(1), pages 65-99, March.
    7. Baris Ucar & Gianni Betti, 2016. "The effect of a newborn on household poverty: a multi-indicator analysis," Department of Economics University of Siena 742, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    8. Carlos Pestana Barros & Otavio Henrique dos Santos Figueiredo & Peter Fernades Wanke, 2016. "Peasants’ Poverty and Inequality in Angola," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(2), pages 751-761, September.
    9. Onipede Wusu & Emmanuel O. Amoo, 2016. "Fertility Behaviour and Wealth Situation in Nigeria: Evidence from 2013 Demographic and Health Survey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 1-14, August.
    10. Mussa, Richard, 2017. "Contextual Effects of Education on Poverty in Malawi," MPRA Paper 75976, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General

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