IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nam/defipp/2206.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

When Sterilizations Lower Immunizations: The Emergency Experience in India (1975-77)

Author

Listed:
  • Charlotte Pelras

    (Paris School of Economics)

  • Andrea Renk

    (Center for Research in the Economics of Development, University of Namur)

Abstract

In the 1970s in India, an aggressive family-planning program resulted in more than eight million sterilizations. We study whether this campaign affected demand for health services, specifically children's immunization and hospital births. We show that excessive sterilizations led to a substantial decrease in the use of these services, especially vaccination. If half of the sterilizations in a state were excessive (compared to none), the probabilities of receiving any vaccine and the triple antigen vaccine were respectively 17% and 34% lower for children born after the event as compared to their older siblings or older children in the same village. We find evidence suggesting the mechanism is a decline in trust rather than a change in health supply or valuation of children.

Suggested Citation

  • Charlotte Pelras & Andrea Renk, 2022. "When Sterilizations Lower Immunizations: The Emergency Experience in India (1975-77)," DeFiPP Working Papers 2206, University of Namur, Development Finance and Public Policies.
  • Handle: RePEc:nam:defipp:2206
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://defipp.unamur.be/wp/defipp_wp_2022_6.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2022
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pramod Kumar Sur, 2021. "Understanding Vaccine Hesitancy: Empirical Evidence from India," Papers 2103.02909, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2023.
    2. Grant Miller & Kimberly Singer Babiarz, 2016. "Family Planning Program Effects: Evidence from Microdata," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 42(1), pages 7-26, March.
    3. Sara Lowes & Eduardo Montero, 2021. "The Legacy of Colonial Medicine in Central Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(4), pages 1284-1314, April.
    4. Alberto Abadie & Susan Athey & Guido W Imbens & Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2023. "When Should You Adjust Standard Errors for Clustering?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(1), pages 1-35.
    5. A. Colin Cameron & Douglas L. Miller, 2015. "A Practitioner’s Guide to Cluster-Robust Inference," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 317-372.
    6. Calvi, Rossella & Mantovanelli, Federico G., 2018. "Long-term effects of access to health care: Medical missions in colonial India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 285-303.
    7. Bellows, John & Miguel, Edward, 2009. "War and local collective action in Sierra Leone," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(11-12), pages 1144-1157, December.
    8. Matthew Connelly, 2006. "Population Control in India: Prologue to the Emergency Period," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 32(4), pages 629-667, December.
    9. Monica Martinez-Bravo & Andreas Stegmann, 2022. "In Vaccines We Trust? The Effects of the CIA’s Vaccine Ruse on Immunization in Pakistan," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 150-186.
    10. Marianna Battaglia & Nina Pallarés, 2020. "Family Planning and Child Health Care: Effect of the Peruvian Programa de Salud Reproductiva y Planificación Familiar, 1996–2000," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 46(1), pages 33-64, March.
    11. Kumar Sur, Pramod, 2021. "Why is the Vaccination Rate Low in India?," AGI Working Paper Series 2021-03, Asian Growth Research Institute.
    12. Tom Bundervoet & Philip Verwimp & Richard Akresh, 2009. "Health and Civil War in Rural Burundi," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(2).
    13. Grant Miller and Kimberly Singer Babiarz, 2016. "Family Planning Program Effects: A Review of Evidence from Microdata - Working Paper 422," Working Papers 422, Center for Global Development.
    14. Abhijit Banerjee & Arun G. Chandrasekhar & Suresh Dalpath & Esther Duflo & John Floretta & Matthew O. Jackson & Harini Kannan & Francine N. Loza & Anirudh Sankar & Anna Schrimpf & Maheshwor Shrestha, 2021. "Selecting the Most Effective Nudge: Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment on Immunization," NBER Working Papers 28726, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Charlotte Pelras & Andrea Renk, 2021. "Sterilizations and immunization in India: The Emergency experience (1975-1977)," DeFiPP Working Papers 2105, University of Namur, Development Finance and Public Policies.
    2. Pelras, Charlotte & Renk, Andréa, 2023. "When sterilizations lower immunizations: The Emergency experience in India (1975–77)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    3. Herrera-Almanza, Catalina & Rosales-Rueda, Maria F., 2020. "Reducing the Cost of Remoteness: Community-Based Health Interventions and Fertility Choices," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    4. Belmonte, A & Pickard, H, 2022. "Safe at Last? LATE Effects of a Mass Immunization Campaign on Households’ Economic Insecurity," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 604, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    5. Isaac Mbiti & Danila Serra, 2022. "Health workers’ behavior, patient reporting and reputational concerns: lab-in-the-field experimental evidence from Kenya," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(2), pages 514-556, April.
    6. Ji Yeon Hong & Woo Chang Kang, 2017. "Trauma and stigma: The long-term effects of wartime violence on political attitudes," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 34(3), pages 264-286, May.
    7. Prasad, Niranjana, 2022. "Impact of Forced Sterilization on Female Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from India," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2022023, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    8. Pramod Kumar Sur, 2021. "Understanding Vaccine Hesitancy: Empirical Evidence from India," Papers 2103.02909, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2023.
    9. Clément de Chaisemartin & Jaime Ramirez-Cuellar, 2024. "At What Level Should One Cluster Standard Errors in Paired and Small-Strata Experiments?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 193-212, January.
    10. Borisova, Ekaterina & Gründler, Klaus & Hackenberger, Armin & Harter, Anina & Potrafke, Niklas & Schoors, Koen, 2023. "Crisis experience and the deep roots of COVID-19 vaccination preferences," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    11. Laura Muñoz-Blanco & Federico Fabio Frattini, 2024. "Vaccines on the Move and the War on Polio," Working Papers 2024.30, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    12. Marion Mercier & Rama Lionel Ngenzebuke & Philip Verwimp, 2016. "Violence exposure and welfare over time: Evidence from the Burundi civil war," HiCN Working Papers 198 updated, Households in Conflict Network.
    13. Derksen, Laura & Kerwin, Jason Theodore & Reynoso, Natalia Ordaz & Sterck, Olivier, 2021. "Appointments: A More Effective Commitment Device for Health Behaviors," SocArXiv y8gh7, Center for Open Science.
    14. Serneels , Pieter & Verpoorten , Marijke, 2012. "The impact of armed conflict on economic performance. Evidence from Rwanda," NEPS Working Papers 5/2012, Network of European Peace Scientists.
    15. Joana Elisa Maldonado & Kristof De Witte & Koen Declercq, 2022. "The effects of parental involvement in homework: two randomised controlled trials in financial education," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 1439-1464, March.
    16. Samuel Nocito & Marcello Sartarelli & Francesco Sobbrio, 2021. "A Beam of Light: Media, Tourism & Economic Development," CESifo Working Paper Series 9055, CESifo.
    17. Simone Bertoli & Morgane Laouenan & Jérôme Valette, 2022. "Border Apprehensions and Federal Sentencing of Hispanic Citizens in the United States," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03818735, HAL.
    18. Nocito, Samuel & Sartarelli, Marcello & Sobbrio, Francesco, 2023. "A beam of light: Media, tourism and economic development," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    19. Burlig, Fiona & Preonas, Louis & Woerman, Matt, 2020. "Panel data and experimental design," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    20. Fenske, James & Wang, Shizhuo, 2023. "Tradition and mortality: Evidence from twin infanticide in Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).

    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:nam:defipp:2206. 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: François-Xavier Ledru (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fsfunbe.html .

    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.