3,687 research outputs found
Staying in school: assessing the role of access, availability and cost
No full textThis paper investigates the role of contextual factors outside the household in determining whether or not a child attends basic education in Tajikistan. By combining data from the Tajikistan Living Standard Survey with data from a parallel community survey, aggregated census data at the jamoat (village) level, and spatial data, a series of variables are constructed which characterize the environment where the child lives. These variables serve as proxies for the accessibility and availability of school services, quality of education, opportunity cost of education in terms of the opportunities for income generating activities forgone, and level of economic development in the communities. Applying multilevel modelling techniques, the results show that contextual factors have a strong effect on school attendance. Accessibility of service and higher quality of school have a positive effect, however a high opportunity cost to education in a community exerts a negative effect on school attendance
Effects of modernization on desired fertility in Egypt
No full textUsing a conceptual framework that borrows notions both from the economic theory of fertility and social interaction theory, this paper assesses the relative importance of social and economic modernisation at the individual and community level in explaining geographical differentials in desired fertility in Egypt. Using the 2000 Egyptian Demographic Health Survey and an up-to-date map of land cover in Egypt, this paper provides an application of an advanced methodology which uses a combination of multilevel modelling and geographical information system (GIS) techniques. The paper shows how GIS techniques facilitate the construction of several variables representing the level of economic modernisation, such as land use, road density and urbanisation. It illustrates how GIS techniques and multilevel modelling can help us to move forward a step in substantiating theories of community influences on fertility. This study also analyses the effect of current family composition on desired fertility in Egypt and reveals the desire of Egyptian society to have at least two children and at least one boy
Health inequities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: selected country case studies
No full textThis report focuses on the available evidence on inequities in health and inequities in socioeconomic determinants that exist both within and across countries in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region. It uses data from the Pan-Arab Project for Child Development (PAPCHILD) and Pan-Arab Project Family Health Survey (PAPFAM). The report aims to assess the extent of health inequality in the Region and identify what contributed to the changing levels of inequalities in the 1990s. The study analyses the role of changing socioeconomic and behavioural characteristics of the population and the changes in health system in contributing to widening or narrowing health inequalities. The analysis is limited to six countries in the Region for which we have data on health outcomes in two points in time (early 1990s and early 2000). Three main research questions were asked as follows. 1. What is the extent of health inequities within and across the countries in the Region? 2. What are the major factors contributing to health inequities within countries? 3. What are the major policy implications or actions that countries should consider given the results of the analysis
The second birth interval in Egypt: the role of contraception
No full textThe paper discusses problems of model specification in birth interval analysis. Using Bongaarts’s conceptual framework on the proximate determinants on fertility, the paper tests the hypothesis that all important variation in fertility is captured by differences in marriage, breastfeeding, contraception and induced abortion. The paper applies a discrete time hazard model to study the second birth interval using data from the Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey 2000 (EDHS), and the month by month information on contraceptive use, breastfeeding, and postpartum amenorrhea available in the EDHS calendar. The paper shows the importance of including both information on contraceptive use by types, breastfeeding, and postpartum amenorrhea period in birth intervals analysis
Creating a poverty map for Azerbaijan / Angela Baschieri ... [et al.]
No full text""Poverty maps"-that is, graphic representations of spatially disaggregated estimates of welfare-are being increasingly used to geographically target scarce resources. But the development of detailed poverty maps in many low resource settings is hampered because of data constraints. Data on income or consumption are often unavailable and, where they are, direct survey estimates for small areas are likely to yield unacceptably large standard errors due to limited sample sizes. Census data offer the required level of coverage but do not generally contain the appropriate information. This has led to the development of a range of alternative methods aimed either at combining survey data with unit record data from the census to produce estimates of income or expenditure for small areas or at developing alternative welfare rankings, such as asset indices, using existing census data. This paper develops a set of poverty maps for Azerbaijan that can be used by different users. Two alternative approaches to the measurement and mapping of welfare are adopted. First, a map is derived using imputed household consumption. This involves combining information from the 2002 Household Budget Survey (HBS) with 1999 census data. Second, an alternative map is constructed using an asset index based on data from the 1999 census to produce estimates of welfare at the rayon level. This provides a unique opportunity to compare the welfare rankings obtained at the regional level under the two alternative approaches. In order to visually present the spatially disgaggregated estimates of welfare in Azerbaijan, this paper has also produced a digital census map of Azerbaijan. This involved matching the census enumeration areas to a digital settlement map of Azerbaijan. Therefore, it is now possible for the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan to display graphically the results of the 1999 census of Azerbaijan along with other data. "--World Bank web siteTitle from PDF file as viewed on 12/9/2005Includes bibliographical referencesAlso available in prin
Three essays on fertility and contraceptive use in Egypt
No full textEThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Ethnic differences in transition to first marriage in Iran
No full textThis paper, using data from the 2000 Iran Demographic and Health Survey and a range of time-varying district-level contextual information derived from the 1986 and 1996 censuses of Iran, applies a discrete time hazard model to study ethnic differences in women’s transition to first marriage. The model specification accounts for both spatial and temporal changes in the socio-economic context of transition to marriage. We found ethnic-specific responses on women’s marriage timing to changes in the socio-economic context between the mid 1970s and 2000. Some ethnic groups appear to be more resistant to change despite sharing similar changes in their socio-economic context.development, education, ethnicity, Iran, marriage, marriage market, women status
The proximate determinants of fertility and birth intervals in Egypt: an application of calendar data
No full textIn this paper we use calendar data from the 2000 Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) to assess the determinants of birth interval length among women who are in union. We make use of the well-known model of the proximate determinants of fertility, and take advantage of the fact that the DHS calendar data provide month-by-month data on contraceptive use, breastfeeding and post-partum amenorrhoea, which are the most important proximate determinants among women in union. One aim of the analysis is to see whether the calendar data are sufficiently detailed to account for all variation among individual women in birth interval duration, in that once they are controlled, the effect of background social, economic and cultural variables is not statistically significant. The results suggest that this is indeed the case, especially after a random effect term to account for the unobserved proximate determinants is included in the model. Birth intervals are determined mainly by the use of modern methods of contraception (the IUD being more effective than the pill). Breastfeeding and post-partum amenorrhoea both inhibit conception, and the effect of breastfeeding remains even after the period of amenorrhoea has ended
Staying in school: assessing the role of access, availability, and economic opportunities - the case of Tajikistan
No full textAt independence in 1991, Tajikistan enjoyed almost universal literacy, reflecting the legacy of social development achieved during the Soviet period. However, since then the country has undergone immense economic, political and social upheaval, including civil war. As a consequence, the gains of the past are quickly being eroded. Recent evidence suggests that school attendance rates are declining, the gender gap is widening, and there is increasing geographical variation. This paper uses a unique source of data to investigate the relative roles of individual, household, and contextual factors to determine whether or not a child attends basic education in Tajikistan. Applying multilevel modelling and geographical information system techniques, the results show that contextual factors have a strong effect on school attendance. In particular, the accessibility and availability of school services and the quality of education have a positive effect. However, the level of economic development of the community in which the child lives exerts a negative effect on school attendance, reflecting the influence of higher opportunity costs of education in terms of the opportunities for income-generating activities forgone. This has implications for educational policy, highlighting that a joined-up approach is necessary to foster local economic development and to lower school dropout rates
Gender and poverty. How misleading is the unitary model of household resources? An illustration from Tajikistan
No full textSince December 1999 all countries wishing to access concessional lending from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank are required to prepare a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The vast majority of PRSP incorporate an analysis of the current level and profile of poverty that relies on the unitary model of the household. This article argues that by doing so, policy analysts may receive a distorted view of the relationship between gender and poverty. Using the 2003 Tajikistan Living Standard Survey the article shows how, by modifying the assumption of equal sharing of household resources, gender differentials in the experience of poverty may vary. The article also illustrates how those gender analyses that simply use a dichotomy based on the gender of the head of household may also be misleading. The findings have implications for mainstreaming gender into the PRSP process, and for the priority of policy and programme interventions supported under national Poverty Reduction Strategie
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