Reference using Indian district data:
Murthi, Mamta, Anne-Catherine Guio, and Jean Dreze.
1995. "Mortality, fertility, and gender bias in India: a district-level
analysis."
Population and Development Review 21(Dec): 745-82, 921, 923-4.
This article examines the determinants of fertility, child mortality, and gender
bias in child survival in India using district-level data from the 1981 census.
A common set of explanatory variables is used, including male and female
literacy, the level of poverty, female labor force participation, urbanization,
health care facilities, and other socioeconomic variables. The analysis
demonstrates the powerful demographic influence of variables that relate
directly to women's agency, notably female literacy and labor force
participation. The former, in particular, significantly reduces child mortality,
fertility levels, and the female disadvantage in child survival. The latter has
no statistically significant effect on the level of child mortality, but reduces
gender bias in child survival as well as fertility levels. Variables reflecting
the general level of development and modernization have a negative but
comparatively weak impact on mortality and fertility levels, and, if anything,
amplify rather than reduce the gender bias in child survival. In particular, the
female disadvantage in child survival is significantly lower in districts with
higher poverty levels."
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23, 2001 |
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