Mother’s formal schooling—even at the primary level—is associated with lower risk of child mortality, although the reasons why remain unclear. This study examines whether mother’s reading skills help to explain the association in Nigeria. Using data from the Demographic and Health...

Although a large literature analyzes the determinants of child mortality and suggests policy and medical interventions aimed at its reduction, there is little existing analysis illuminating the consequences of child mortality for other family members. In particular, there is little evidence...

Single motherhood in sub-Saharan Africa has received surprisingly little attention, although it is widespread and has critical implications for children’s well-being. Using survival analysis techniques, we estimate the probability of becoming a single mother over women’s life course and...

Recent studies indicate that the traditional rural-urban dichotomy that points to cities as places of better health in the developing worldcan be complicated by poverty differentials; many poor urban women experiencechild mortality burdens as high as their rural counterparts. However, little is...

Many governments in developing countries implement programs that aim to address nutrional failures in early childhood, yet credible evidence on the effectiveness of these interventions is scant. This paper evaluates the impact of a large-scale, government-run, food fortification program on child...

We propose a unified growth theory to investigate the mechanics generating the economic and demographic transition, and the role of mortality differences for comparative development. The framework can replicate the quantitative pat- terns in historical time series data and in contemporaneous...