The Consequences of Reproductive Failure: Dependence, Mobility, and Mortality among the Elderly of Rural South Asia

Abstract

This paper examines the proposition that the economic mobility of persons in rural South Asia is affected by their reproductive outcomes: specifically, that reproductive failure (defined as the failure to rear a surviving son) entails material loss. Underlying this proposition is the notion that sons in this setting constitute an important source of insurance against the risk of income insufficiency in old age and in a variety of other contingencies. Analysis of data on living arrangements of the elderly in several rural South Asian communities and histories of asset gain and loss suggest that the consequences of reproductive failure include higher mortality risks and a high probability of property loss, that these consequences are more severe for women than for men, and are considerably more severe in rural Bangladesh than in the sampled areas of rural India.