Child Mortality and Environment in Developing Countries

Abstract

This paper studies child mortality and fertility in 61 developing countries including the Central Asian Republics (CARs). To control for simultaneity, an estimated value of fertility was used in the mortality equation and a final specification included only exogenous socio-economic, health and environmental variables. We confirm the importance of female literacy in explaining both fertility and mortality, and also find a measure of consumption for the poorest share of the population to be significant, while controlling for nutrition, health expenditure, and income distribution. Incidence of tuberculosis and female agricultural population proxy for environmental impacts, but in spite of these controls, approximately 41% additional mortality was estimated due to living in the CARs. The results fill gaps in the literature: we use a wider range of socio-economic and environmental health variables than previously in an encompassing analysis of mortality and fertility, and find evidence of excessive mortality in the CARs most likely linked to environmental degradation in the region.

A Step toward Realization of Vision 2030; Reduction in Child Mortality: New Evidence from South Asian Countries

“…Moreover, Franz and FitzRoy (2006) found in 61 developing countries that fertility rate affects child mortality significantly. This study also uses health expenditure, income distributions, and nutrition as the main determinant of child mortality.…”

New trends in under-five mortality determinants and their effects on child survival in Nigeria: A review of childhood mortality data from 1990-2008

“…The significance of potable safe water and sanitation for child survival has been emphasised by several studies (Franz and FitzRoy, 2006;Satterthwaite et al 1996). The proximate determinants of childhood mortality in Nigeria are closely associated with neighbourhood and household level characteristics (Iyun, 2000).…”

Child mortality in Central Asia: social policy, agriculture and the environment

“…In a previous study by the authors, it was found that a significant share of child mortality in the CARs could not be explained by an expanded set of traditional determinants, such as income inequality, health care spending and fertility. 25 This study uses official, country-level statistics, which are almost certainly serious underestimates of mortality in the CARS, so the true discrepancy should be higher. In the Aral Sea Basin, 40 million of the approximately 55 million inhabitants of Central Asia are surrounded by one of the worst environmental disasters of the 20 th Century-an ongoing disaster that has wreaked social, economic, as well as ecological, havoc.…”