IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/16089.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Impact of fertility on objective and subjective poverty in Malawi

Author

Listed:
  • Mussa, Richard

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 �nd that fertility increases the probability of being objectively poor. This e¤ect 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 �nd 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 �nd that fertility lowers the likelihood of feeling poor, and that fertility is exogenous with respect to subjective poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Mussa, Richard, 2009. "Impact of fertility on objective and subjective poverty in Malawi," MPRA Paper 16089, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:16089
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/16089/1/MPRA_paper_16089.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Birdsall, Nancy M. & Griffin, Charles C., 1988. "Fertility and poverty in developing countries," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 29-55, April.
    2. Bronars, Stephen G & Grogger, Jeff, 1994. "The Economic Consequences of Unwed Motherhood: Using Twin Births as a Natural Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1141-1156, December.
    3. Rosenzweig, Mark R. & Paul Schultz, T., 1987. "Fertility and investments in human capital : Estimates of the consequence of imperfect fertility control in Malaysia," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-2), pages 163-184.
    4. Jonathan Haughton & Dominique Haughton, 1998. "Are simple tests of son preference useful? An evaluation using data from Vietnam," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 11(4), pages 495-516.
    5. Mukherjee, Sanjukta & Benson, Todd, 2003. "The Determinants of Poverty in Malawi, 1998," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 339-358, February.
    6. Michael Lokshin & Nithin Umapathi & Stefano Paternostro, 2006. "Robustness of subjective welfare analysis in a poor developing country: Madagascar 2001," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 559-591.
    7. Lanjouw, Peter & Ravallion, Martin, 1995. "Poverty and Household Size," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(433), pages 1415-1434, November.
    8. Angrist, Joshua D & Evans, William N, 1998. "Children and Their Parents' Labor Supply: Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Family Size," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 450-477, June.
    9. Gary S. Becker & H. Gregg Lewis, 1974. "Interaction between Quantity and Quality of Children," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of the Family: Marriage, Children, and Human Capital, pages 81-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Bokosi, Fanwell Kenala, 2006. "Household Poverty Dynamics in Malawi," MPRA Paper 1222, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Ravallion, Martin & Lokshin, Michael, 2002. "Self-rated economic welfare in Russia," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1453-1473, September.
    12. Alex Van Der Merwe, 2006. "Identifying Some Constraints In First Year Economics Teaching And Learning At A Typical South African University Of Technology," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 74(1), pages 150-159, March.
    13. Susan Godlonton & Malcolm Keswell, 2005. "The Impact Of Health On Poverty: Evidence From The South African Integrated Family Survey," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 73(1), pages 133-148, March.
    14. Ravallion, Martin, 1996. "Issues in Measuring and Modelling Poverty," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(438), pages 1328-1343, September.
    15. Pradhan, Menno & Ravallion, Martin, 1998. "Measuring poverty using qualitative perceptions of welfare," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2011, The World Bank.
    16. Cornéa van Walbeek, 2004. "Does Lecture Attendance Matter? Some Observations From A First‐Year Economics Course At The University Of Cape Town," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 72(4), pages 861-883, September.
    17. Geeta G. Kingdon & John Knight, 2003. "Well-being poverty versus income poverty and capabilities poverty?," CSAE Working Paper Series 2003-16, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    18. Chiara Monfardini & Rosalba Radice, 2008. "Testing Exogeneity in the Bivariate Probit Model: A Monte Carlo Study," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 70(2), pages 271-282, April.
    19. Willis, Robert J, 1973. "A New Approach to the Economic Theory of Fertility Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(2), pages 14-64, Part II, .
    20. Olsen, Randall J, 1983. "Mortality Rates, Mortality Events, and the Number of Births," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(2), pages 29-32, May.
    21. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1980. "Testing the Quantity-Quality Fertility Model: The Use of Twins as a Natural Experiment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 227-240, January.
    22. Nabanita Datta Gupta & Amaresh Dubey, 2006. "Fertility and the household's economic status: A natural experiment using Indian micro data," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 110-138.
    23. Deaton, A. & Zaidi, S., 1999. "Guidelines for Constructing Consumption Aggregates for Welfare Analysis," Papers 192, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Development Studies.
    24. Angus Deaton & Salman Zaidi, 2002. "Guidelines for Constructing Consumption Aggregates for Welfare Analysis," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 14101, April.
    25. Cohen, Barney & House, William J., 1994. "Demographic behavior and poverty: Micro-level evidence from Southern Sudan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(7), pages 1031-1044, July.
    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. 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.

    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. Oliveira, Jaqueline, 2016. "The value of children: Inter-generational support, fertility, and human capital," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 1-16.
    2. Damian Clarke, 2018. "Children And Their Parents: A Review Of Fertility And Causality," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 518-540, April.
    3. Bruno Arpino & Arnstein Aassve, 2013. "Estimating the causal effect of fertility on economic wellbeing: data requirements, identifying assumptions and estimation methods," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 355-385, February.
    4. Hongbin Li & Junsen Zhang & Yi Zhu, 2008. "The quantity-Quality trade-Off of children In a developing country: Identification using chinese twins," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 45(1), pages 223-243, February.
    5. Van Campenhout, Bjorn, 2016. "Fertility, Agricultural Labor Supply, and Production: Instrumental Variable Evidence from Uganda," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 581-607, December.
    6. Arnstein Aassve & Henriette Engelhardt & Francesca Francavilla & Abbi Kedir & Jungho Kim & Fabrizia Mealli & Letizia Mencarini & Stephen Pudney & Alexia Prskawetz, 2005. "Poverty and Fertility in Less Developed Countries: A Comparative Analysis," Discussion Papers in Economics 05/28, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    7. Abbi, M. Kedir & Aassve, Arnstein & Habtu, Tadesse Woldegebriel, 2008. "Simultaneous Random effect models of poverty and Childbearing in Ethiopia," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 14(2), pages 1-78, May.
    8. Schultz, T. Paul, 2010. "Population and Health Policies," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4785-4881, Elsevier.
    9. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2005. "The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Children's Education," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 669-700.
    10. Nils Braakmann & John Wildman, 2014. "Reconsidering the impact of family size on labour supply: The twin-problems of the twin-birth instrument," Working Paper Series in Economics 316, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    11. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2010. "Small Family, Smart Family? Family Size and the IQ Scores of Young Men," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(1).
    12. Gero Carletto & Alberto Zezza, 2006. "Being poor, feeling poorer: Combining objective and subjective measures of welfare in Albania," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(5), pages 739-760.
    13. Yu Bai & Yanjun Li & Pak Hung Lam, 2023. "Quantity-quality trade-off in Northeast China during the Qing dynasty," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1657-1694, July.
    14. Julio Cáceres-Delpiano, 2006. "The Impacts of Family Size on Investment in Child Quality," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(4).
    15. Frühwirth-Schnatter, Sylvia & Halla, Martin & Posekany, Alexandra & Pruckner, Gerald J. & Schober, Thomas, 2014. "The Quantity and Quality of Children: A Semi-Parametric Bayesian IV Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 8024, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Duryea, Suzanne & Behrman, Jere R. & Székely, Miguel, 1999. "Decomposing Fertility Differences across World Regions and over Time: Is Improved Health More Important than Women's Schooling?," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1898, Inter-American Development Bank.
    17. Ponzo Michela & Scoppa Vincenzo, 2024. "Human Capital Investments and Family Size in Italy: IV Estimates Using Twin Births as an Instrument," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 24(2), pages 425-461, April.
    18. Daniel Aaronson & Rajeev Dehejia & Andrew Jordan & Cristian Pop-Eleches & Cyrus Samii & Karl Schulze, 2021. "The Effect of Fertility on Mothers’ Labor Supply over the Last Two Centuries [Semiparametric instrumental variables estimation of treatment response models]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(633), pages 1-32.
    19. Jungmin Lee, 2008. "Sibling size and investment in children’s education: an asian instrument," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 21(4), pages 855-875, October.
    20. Jungho Kim & Henriette Engelhardt & Alexia Prskawetz & Arnstein Aassve, 2009. "Does fertility decrease household consumption?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 20(26), pages 623-656.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Objective poverty; subjective poverty; fertility; Malawi;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:16089. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.