Understanding the effects of siblings on child mortality: evidence from India

Abstract

Given the intrinsically sequential nature of child birth, timing of a child’s birth has consequences not only for itself, but also for the older and younger siblings. The paper thus argues that prior and posterior spacing between consecutive siblings are important measures of the intensity of competition among siblings for limited parental resources. While the available estimates of child mortality tend to ignore this simultaneity bias, we use a correlated recursive model of prior and posterior spacing and child mortality to correct it. There is evidence that uncorrected estimates underestimate the effects of prior and posterior spacing on child mortality.