Nancy Luke

NEW ROLES FOR MARRIAGE IN URBAN AFRICA: KINSHIP NETWORKS AND THE LABOR MARKET IN KENYA

This paper explores new roles that traditionally rural kinship networks organized around the marriage institution might play in improving labor market outcomes in urban Africa. Using new data from Kisumu, Kenya, and controlling for selection into marriage, we find that marriage significantly increases employment levels and incomes in our sample of migrants. At the same time, marriage increases the remittances that migrants send to the extended family, consistent with the view that the benefits of the network come with additional social obligations. These obligations appear to be borne disproportionately by high-ability individuals, who consequently defer marriage. The negative selection into marriage that we uncover has consequences for the future viability of the urban networks, with implications for long-term growth and distribution in this economy.

The Relationship History Calendar: Improving the Scope and Quality of Data on Youth Sexual Behavior

Most survey data on sexual activities are obtained via face-to-face interviews, which are prone to misreporting of socially unacceptable behaviors. Demographers have developed various private response methods to minimize social desirability bias and improve the quality of reporting; however, these methods often limit the complexity of information collected. We designed a life history calendar—the Relationship History Calendar (RHC)—to increase the scope of data collected on sexual relationships and behavior while enhancing their quality. The RHC records detailed, 10-year retrospective information on sexual relationship histories. The structure and interview procedure draw on qualitative techniques, which could reduce social desirability bias. We compare the quality of data collected with the RHC with a standard face-to-face survey instrument through a field experiment conducted among 1,275 youth in Kisumu, Kenya. The results suggest that the RHC reduces social desirability bias and improves reporting on multiple measures, including higher rates of abstinence among males and multiple recent sexual partnerships among females. The RHC fosters higher levels of rapport and respondent enjoyment, which appear to be the mechanisms through which social desirability bias is minimized. The RHC is an excellent alternative to private response methods and could potentially be adapted for large-scale surveys.

Reproductive Health Policies and Programs in eight countries: Progress since Cairo

Many countries have adopted the Program of Action drafted at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo. Interviews were conducted in 1997 with stakeholders in Bangladesh India Nepal Jordan Ghana Senegal Jamaica and Peru to learn about countries experiences revising reproductive health policies and implementing programs since the ICPD. Of the 8 countries only Jordan and Peru failed to adopt the Cairo definition of reproductive health verbatim. However all of the countries have begun to reform policies in a bid to reflect a new focus. Less has been accomplished in actually implementing integrated reproductive health programs. The following challenges face all of the countries as they continue to design reproductive health programs: improving knowledge and support among stakeholders planning for integration and decentralized services developing human resources improving the quality of care and maintaining a long-term perspective upon the implementation of the Cairo agenda. Countries must now be helped to set priorities for establishing integrated reproductive health interventions to increase financing for services and to develop strategies for delivering them.

‘Too many girls, too much dowry’: son preference and daughter aversion in rural Tamil Nadu, India

The southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has experienced a dramatic decline in fertility, accompanied by a trend of increased son preference. This paper reports on findings from qualitative interviews with women in rural villages about their fertility decision‐making. Specifically addressed are the reasons behind increasing son preference and the consequences of this change. Findings suggest that daughter aversion, fuelled primarily by the perceived economic burden of daughters due to the proliferation of dowry, is playing a larger role in fertility decision‐making than son preference. The desire for a son is often trumped by the worry over having many daughters. Women use various means of controlling the sex of their children, which in this study appear to be primarily female infanticide. It is important to distinguish between son preference and daughter aversion and to examine repercussions of low fertility within this setting.

Dimensions of poverty and inconsistent condom use among youth in urban Kenya.

Abstract To date, research on the link between poverty and unsafe sexual behaviors has utilized limited measures of socioeconomic status and has overlooked key dimensions of poverty at the individual level. This study explored how various dimensions of socioeconomic status are associated with inconsistent condom use and how these associations vary by gender. We analyzed unique life history survey data from 261 young men and women in Kisumu, Kenya, and conducted analyses based on 959 person-months in which respondents had been sexually active in nonmarital relationships. Dependent variables were inconsistent condom use (not always using a condom) and never use of condoms. Condoms were used inconsistently in 57% of months and were never used in 31%. Corroborating existing literature, lower household wealth and lower educational attainment were associated with inconsistent condom use. Lower individual economic status (lower earned income, food insufficiency, and larger material transfers from partners) were also important determinants of inconsistent condom use. There were no significant differences in these associations by gender, with the exception of food insufficiency, which increased the risk of inconsistent condom use for young women but not for young men. None of these individual measures of socioeconomic status were associated with never use of a condom. The findings suggest that both household- and individual-level measures of socioeconomic status are important correlates of condom use and that individual economic resources play a crucial role in negotiations over the highest level of usage. The results highlight the importance of poverty in shaping sexual behavior, and, in particular, that increasing individual access to resources beyond the household, including ensuring access to food and providing educational and work opportunities, could prove to be effective strategies for decreasing the risk of HIV among youth.

Economic Status, Informal Exchange, and Sexual Risk in Kisumu, Kenya

Many observers believe that wealthy men play a disproportionate role in the continuing spread of HIV/AIDS infection in sub‐Saharan Africa through their involvement in informal exchange relationships, where money and gifts (referred to as “transfers”) are given to a range of nonmarital sexual partners. In this case, wealthier men are riskier sexual partners because they can afford to give larger transfers, which have been found to be negatively associated with condom use. Alternatively, wealthier men might have greater incentives to practice safe sex at later stages of the epidemic, or wealthier men might match with female partners who have particularly strong preferences for condom use. Accordingly, economic status would be positively associated with condom use. I use survey data from urban Kisumu, Kenya, to investigate the various mechanisms through which economic status is associated with sexual risk behavior. My results show that wealth is positively associated with transfers; however, wealth is uncorrelated with condom use. The characteristics of wealthier men’s female partners also do not differ from the characteristics of poorer men’s partners. I conclude that wealthier men have stronger preferences for condom use, which offsets the negative effect of larger transfers that they give to their sexual partners.

Exploring the meaning of context for health: Community influences on child health in South India

Much research attention has been devoted to community context and health. Communities are often defined as residential spaces, such as neighborhoods, or as social groupings, such as caste in India. Using data from a group of tea estates in South India, we attempt to address important methodological challenges in the identification of neighborhood effects on child health. We find significant neighborhood effects for weight for age at age one, including a protective role for community-level womens education, but none for birth weight. In contrast to the usual pattern in rural India, caste disparities in child health are also eliminated in this setting.

Migrants' competing commitments: sexual partners in urban Africa and remittances to the rural origin.

Migrants form nonfamilial ties in urban destinations, which could compete with origin families for a share of remittances. A framework of competing commitment predicts that new relationships affect remittances depending on the extent to which they substitute for the benefits provided by origin families. Analyses of data from urban migrants in Kenya show that serious nonmarital sexual partners substitute for psychosocial support from the rural family and that material transfers migrants give to these partners significantly reduce remittances. The findings have implications for the ways scholars conceive of competition, the nature of exchange, and substitution of support across intimate relationships.

Local Hierarchies and Distributor (Non) Compliance: A Case Study of Community-Based Distribution in Rural North India

Community-based distribution of family planning services is particularly appropriate for South Asia, which has hard-to-reach rural populations. In Uttar Pradesh (UP), India, local status hierarchies of gender, caste, and generation shape the nature of relationships that community-based distributors (CBDs) create with their clients. In this case study of an “ideal” distributor, we uncover the conflicting expectations that many CBDs experience: to comply with project objectives without violating local social norms that limit interactions across status boundaries. Our CBD responded to these dual pressures with varying strategies, often perpetuating social distance and restricting information and services for men, adolescents, and other marginalized populations.

Marriage, Networks, and Jobs in Third World Cities

This paper reports on recent research that explores the role of the marriage institution in facilitating economic activity in two urban labor markets: Kisumu, Kenya and Bombay, India. Kin and affine networks, organized around the marriage institution, are shown to improve the individuals labor market outcomes, while at the same time increasing his social obligations, in Kisumu. Caste-based networks, also kept in place by the marriage institution, are shown to shape career choices in Bombay. Although the marriage institution may have demonstrated a significant degree of flexibility in transplanting traditional (rural) networks to the city, we argue that these networks will ultimately break down in the face of economic globalization. (JEL: J12, J24, O12) Copyright (c) 2004 The European Economic Association.