Text and code for "Birth Spacing and Fertility in the Presence of Son Preference and Sex-Selective Abortions: India's Experience Over Four Decades," forthcoming in Demography
Pp. 6-7: I do not understand the importance of this argument and how it fits into the authors’ story: “If more and “better” parental attention per child results in higher child “quality,” we should expect longer birth intervals. However, the evidence on spacing’s effect on child quality measures such as IQ and education is mixed for developed countries and nonexisting for developing countries. The exception is health and mortality, where longer spacing does lead to better outcomes, although this relationship weakens with maternal education.”
Pp. 6-7: I do not understand the importance of this argument and how it fits into the authors’ story: “If more and “better” parental attention per child results in higher child “quality,” we should expect longer birth intervals. However, the evidence on spacing’s effect on child quality measures such as IQ and education is mixed for developed countries and nonexisting for developing countries. The exception is health and mortality, where longer spacing does lead to better outcomes, although this relationship weakens with maternal education.”