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SUMMARY:Feeling the Squeeze: The Effect of Birth Spacing on Infant and Chi
 ld Mortality during the Demographic Transition - Joseph Molitoris (Univers
 ity of Copenhagen)
DTSTART:20160509T120000Z
DTEND:20160509T130000Z
UID:TALK65639@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:31344
DESCRIPTION:A negative association between birth spacing and infant and ch
 ild mortality has been consistently identified within modern populations i
 n developing countries. Generally speaking\, children born following short
 er birth intervals have been found to have higher mortality (Hobcraft\, Mc
 Donald\, & Rutstein\, 1985\; Kozuki et al.\, 2013\; Rutstein\, 2005). The 
 reasons for this association are unclear\, however. Leading hypotheses att
 empt to explain these differences as a result of maternal depletion\, sibl
 ing competition\, sibling contagion\, or unobserved maternal factors that 
 simultaneously influence fertility and infant mortality (e.g. inadequate b
 reastfeeding practices)\, but none has attained overwhelming support.  Thi
 s study contributes to this body of research in a few important ways.  Fir
 st\, it examines this association in a historical context\, which has larg
 ely been ignored (see Pebley\, Hermalin\, & Knodel\, 1991 for a notable ex
 ception). The data come from the Roteman Database\, a longitudinal registe
 r kept for Stockholm\, Sweden between 1878 and 1926. Second\, and more imp
 ortantly\, it attempts to isolate some of the hypothesized causal mechanis
 ms by studying variation within families using models that control for mat
 ernal fixed-effects thereby eliminating the potential for compositional di
 fferences among mothers to drive this relationship.  Results suggest that 
 the relationship between preceding interval length and mortality holds eve
 n when accounting for unobservable maternal factors. Shorter intervals had
  the largest impact on post-neonatal and early childhood (age 1-4) mortali
 ty\, yet had rather small influence on neonatal mortality.  No relationshi
 p between preceding interval length and older child (age 5-9) mortality  c
 ould be identified. The importance of the sibling competition and sibling 
 contagion hypotheses were then assessed by exploiting variation in the tim
 ing of deaths among previously born children. The results point to greater
  importance of sibling competition in the prenatal period\, but a greater 
 role for sibling contagion in the postnatal period.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 5\, Faculty of History
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