In this paper, Weibull unobserved heterogeneity (frailty) survival models are utilized to analyze the determinants of infant and child mortality in Kenya. The results of these models are compared to those of standard Weibull survival models. The study particularly examines the extent to which child survival risks continue to vary net of observed factors and the extent to which nonfrailty models are biased due to the violation of the statistical assumption of independence. The data came from the 1998 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey. The results of the standard Weibull survival models clearly show that biodemographic factors are more important in explaining infant mortality, while socioeconomic, sociocultural and hygienic factors are more important in explaining child mortality. Frailty effects are substantial and highly significant both in infancy and in childhood, but the conclusions remain the same as in the nonfrailty models. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007Determinants of infant and child mortality, Mortality differentials, Unobserved heterogeneity, Frailty, Sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya,

Cohabitation has become so prevalent in Canada that it is now the most common mode of entry into conjugality. Yet in drawing comparisons across Canadian provinces, cohabitation is far more prevalent in the province of Quebec than elsewhere. With this in mind, the purpose of the current paper is three fold. First, we set out to briefly situate the recent growth in the number of common-law unions in Canada and Quebec into a broader historical and international context. Secondly, we review available information from the 2001 Census and the 1998 General Social Survey on some of the key socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of persons who cohabit relative to those that marry. Thirdly, we consider how these changes are important to public policy, and of direct interest Don Kerr, Melissa Moyser and Roderic Beaujot 84to legislators and the Canadian legal system. Major differences are documented in comparing Quebec with elsewhere in Canada in terms of the education, labor force participation, median income, income poverty and homeownership. The differences documented between persons who marry relative to cohabiters are found to be much less in Quebec than elsewhere, in a context whereby cohabitation has become far more widespread, an observation with direct implications for public policy.Key Words: Common law unions, education, income, poverty, labour force participation RésuméLa cohabitation est devenue tant prévalente au Canada qu'elle représente actuellement le mode d'entrée dans la vie conjugale le plus répandu. Cependant, quand on compare entre les provinces canadiennes, la cohabitation est beaucoup plus prévalente dans la province de Québec que dans le reste du pays. En tenant compte de ce fait, cet article a les trois buts suivant : Premièrement, nous donnons un bref aperçu de la récente hausse du nombre d'unions de fait dans son plus large contexte historique et international ; deuxièmement, nous révisons l'information recueillie par le Recensement de 2001 et l'Enquête sociale nationale de 1998 au sujet de certaines caractéristiques socioéconomiques et démographiques clés des personnes qui cohabitent vis à vis de celles qui se marient ; troisièmement, nous examinons le pourquoi et le comment de l'importance de ces changements pour les politiques publiques et leur intérêt direct pour les législateurs et le système juridique canadien. Les différences majeures qui existent entre le Québec et le reste du Canada sont documentées quant aux niveaux d'éducation, de participation à la population active, de revenu moyen, de pauvreté de revenu et de propriété foncière. Il a été trouvé que les différences documentées entre les personnes qui se marient vis à vis celles qui cohabitent sont beaucoup moins importantes au Québec qu'ailleurs au pays et ce dans un contexte où la cohabitation y est devenue beaucoup plus répandue; une observation qui comporte des implications directes pour les politiques publiques.

Eritrea's contraceptive prevalence rate is one of the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa and its fertility has only started to decline. Using data from the 2002 Eritrea Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS), this study examines the determinants of unmet need for family planning that is

latent scores, national survey of giving, social cohesion, structural equation modeling, volunteering and participating,

Random-effect models have been useful in demonstrating how unobserved factors are related to infant or child death clustering. Another potential hypothesis is state dependence whereby the death of an older sibling affects the risk of death of a subsequent sibling. Probit regression models incorporating state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity are applied to the 1998 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data for Kenya. We find that mortality risks of adjacent siblings are dependent: a child whose preceding sibling died is 1.8 times more likely to die. After adjusting for unobserved heterogeneity, the death of the previous child accounts for 40% of child death clustering. Further, eliminating state dependence would reduce infant mortality among second-and higher-order births by 12.5%.