Laetícia Rodrigues de Souza

The Changing Impact of Family Size on Adolescents’ Schooling: Assessing the Exogenous Variation in Fertility Using Twins in Brazil

Researchers have long been interested in the influence of family size on children’s educational outcomes. Simply put, theories have suggested that resources are diluted within families that have more children. Although the empirical literature on developed countries has generally confirmed the theoretical prediction that family size is negatively related to children’s education, studies focusing on developing societies have reported heterogeneity in this association. Recent studies addressing the endogeneity between family size and children’s education have also cast doubt on the homogeneity of the negative role of family size on children’s education. The goal of this study is to examine the causal effect of family size on children’s education in Brazil over a 30-year period marked by important social and demographic change, and across extremely different regions within the country. We implement a twin birth instrumental variable approach to the nationally representative 1977–2009 PNAD data. Our results suggest an effect of family size on education that is not uniform throughout a period of significant social, economic, and demographic change. Rather, the causal effect of family size on adolescents’ schooling resembles a gradient that ranges from positive to no effect, trending to negative.

A relação entre parturição e trabalho feminino no Brasil

The objective here is to analyze the effect of having children on women’s share in the economically active population, observing the temporal evolution of this effect during the 1990s. In addition, based on the fact that each child may exert a different effect on a mother’s decision to work or not, the effect of the first, the second and the third (or more) children on this woman’s share in the economically active population were estimated. In general the findings suggest that, regardless of order of birth, children reduce the likelihood of women to participate in the labor market. Also, during the 1990s and the decade of 2000 the negative effect of the first and second children on women’s share in the labor market fell in impact, whereas the effect of a third child took on some importance.

Correlates of child undernutrition in Yemen

Malnutrition is part of a vicious cycle involving biological and social aspects. Some factors are directly associated with malnutrition, such as inadequate dietary intake and incidence of disease, while others (socio-economic in nature) are more distant but no less important. This paper aims at identifying the main correlates of stunting among Yemeni children through a logistic regression model. The results are based on the fourth round of the National Social Protection Monitoring Survey conducted in 2013; which makes this study a baseline assessment of Yemeni child undernutrition before the ongoing civil war. Primarily addressing the most significant factors associated with stunting in Yemen is urgent especially if one considers the country’s constant public budget shortages. There are significant differences—in prevalence of child stunting—between regions of residence that could be reduced by putting in place local policies aimed at increasing population access to adequate water and good hygiene practices. The Social Welfare Fund (SWF) programme is also important since this benefit is the only source of income for some families. However, if corruption, regional and civil conflict continues, improvements in the SWF will probably not matter. Such interventions, together with policies for changing attitudes towards women’s education, would also help to promote proper child feeding practices. Likewise, cultural aspects can explain the aetiology of children’s poor growth. Examples include feeding taboos that influence early initiation and duration of breastfeeding. With so many steps to be taken to prevent child malnutrition, it cannot remain an invisible problem.

La relación entre paridez y trabajo femenino en Brasil

The objective here is to analyze the effect of having children on women’s share in the economically active population, observing the temporal evolution of this effect during the 1990s. In addition, based on the fact that each child may exert a different effect on a mother’s decision to work or not, the effect of the first, the second and the third (or more) children on this woman’s share in the economically active population were estimated. In general the findings suggest that, regardless of order of birth, children reduce the likelihood of women to participate in the labor market. Also, during the 1990s and the decade of 2000 the negative effect of the first and second children on women’s share in the labor market fell in impact, whereas the effect of a third child took on some importance.

The relationship between childbirth and women's labor in Brazil

The objective here is to analyze the effect of having children on women’s share in the economically active population, observing the temporal evolution of this effect during the 1990s. In addition, based on the fact that each child may exert a different effect on a mother’s decision to work or not, the effect of the first, the second and the third (or more) children on this woman’s share in the economically active population were estimated. In general the findings suggest that, regardless of order of birth, children reduce the likelihood of women to participate in the labor market. Also, during the 1990s and the decade of 2000 the negative effect of the first and second children on women’s share in the labor market fell in impact, whereas the effect of a third child took on some importance.