Household Economic Resources Research Articles

El trabajo infantil en México y sus causas

This article studies the effect of birth order and low household economic resources on school attendance and labor market participation among the population of minors in Mexico. Drawing on data from the Child Labor Center, this work estimates a series of multivariate probit models with different specifications, aiming to minimize problems related to the endogeneity of the sample. The analysis reveals that first-born children are less likely to attend school and more likely to participate in the labor market than their siblings. This relationship is stronger in families where child labor is a response to a lack of economic resources, which suggests that it is the result of the greater income-earning capacity of first-born children.

Links between socio-economic circumstances and changes in smoking behavior in the Mexican population: 2002-2010.

While deleterious consequences of smoking on health have been widely publicized, in many developing countries, smoking prevalence is high and increasing. Little is known about the dynamics underlying changes in smoking behavior. This paper examines socio-economic and demographic characteristics associated with smoking initiation and quitting in Mexico between 2002 and 2010. In addition to the influences of age, gender, education, household economic resources and location of residence, changes in marital status, living arrangements and health status are examined. Drawing data from the Mexican Family Life Survey, a rich population-based longitudinal study of individuals, smoking behavior of individuals in 2002 is compared with their behavior in 2010. Logistic models are used to examine socio-demographic and health factors that are associated with initiating and quitting smoking. There are three main findings. First, part of the relationship between education and smoking reflects the role of economic resources. Second, associations of smoking with education and economic resources differ for females and males. Third, there is considerable heterogeneity in the factors linked to smoking behavior in Mexico indicating that the smoking epidemic may be at different stages in different population subgroups. Mexico has recently implemented fiscal policies and public health campaigns aimed at reducing smoking prevalence and discouraging smoking initiation. These programs are likely to be more effective if they target particular socio-economic and demographic sub-groups.

A Burden of Support? Household Structure and Economic Resources Among Mexican Immigrant Families

The children of Mexican immigrants face formidable barriers to achieving socioeconomic mobility due to their parents’ precarious economic position and high rates of unauthorized status. In the short term, Mexican immigrants often coreside in extended household living arrangements with extended kin and unrelated friends and associates to shelter themselves from economic deprivation and insecurity of unauthorized status. Using individual-level Census data, the present study examines how family economic resources relate to household living arrangements. The results are consistent with various theories of immigrant household formation, especially those that explain household structure in terms of economic need and processes of immigration. Families residing in extended arrangements are unique, however, in terms of how often they include a householder and how much they contribute to total household resources, indicators that families may hold more supportive roles within extended households. The implications of the findings for the well-being of immigration children are discussed.

Intergenerational transmission of educational attainment: The role of household assets

High intergenerational persistence of educational attainment is an indicator of educational inequality and a barrier to equal opportunities in the labor market and beyond. This study uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to generate a sample of two cohorts of children (’84 and &94 cohorts), and it examines whether intergenerational transmission of educational attainment varies by household economic resources, especially household assets. Results show that, among male children in the &94 cohort, household assets increase the strength of the association between parents’ and children's years of schooling. Also, household assets are found to interact with parental education to affect educational attainment, as measured by college completion, among female children in the &94 cohort. Research and policy implications are discussed.

The Effect of Household and Community on School Attrition: An Analysis of Thai Youth

We analyze school attrition among youth in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand. We find that family investments in schooling are shaped by both household and local community contexts. There is an enrollment advantage for girls across different households and communities. We find that youth whose mothers have migrated and youth in immigrant households are at greater risk of leaving school. Attrition is negatively associated with household educational and economic resources. The local labor market, especially the supply of professional and managerial work, positively affects family investment in children’s education. For girls, but not boys, the odds of leaving school are lower in communities dominated by manufacturing and services occupations, which disproportionately employ young women. Our findings highlight the obstacles to achieving universal secondary schooling completion in societies characterized both by entrenched inequalities as well as new inequalities brought about by uneven development, feminizatio...

Household economic resources, labour-market advantage and health problems – A study on causal relationships using prospective register data

Our aim was to find out whether the associations between health and both individual and household economic position reflected a causal effect on health of household affluence and consumption potential. We attempted to separate this effect from health-selection effects, in other words the potential effect of health on economic position, and from various effects related to occupational position and prestige that might correlate with the economic indicators. We made a distinction between individual labour-market advantage and household economic resources in order to reflect these theoretical definitions. Our aim was to test and compare two hypotheses: 1) low household economic resources lead to an increase in health problems later on, and 2) health problems are disadvantageous on the labour market, and consequently decrease the level of economic resources. We used prospective register data obtained from the databases of Statistics Finland and constituting an 11-per-cent random sample of the Finnish population in 1993–2006. Health problems were measured in terms of sickness allowance paid by the Finnish Social Insurance Institution, household economic resources in terms of household-equivalent disposable income and taxable wealth, and labour-market advantage in terms of individual taxable income and months of unemployment. We used structural equation models (n = 211,639) to examine the hypothesised causal pathways. Low household economic resources predicted future health problems, and health problems predicted future deterioration in labour-market advantage. The effect of economic resources on health problems was somewhat stronger. These results suggest that accumulated exposure to low economic resources leads to increasing health problems, and that this causal mechanism is a more significant source of persistent health inequalities than health problems that bring about a permanent decrease in economic resources.

Household Migration, Remittances, and Its Impact on Health in Indonesia.

The growing flow of migrant's remittances has generated much interest in understanding the socioeconomic consequences of household migration for individuals and families in migrant-sending areas. This paper examines the effect of household migration on health status, as measured by nutritional status, of adults who remained behind in rural Indonesia, a setting with high rate of out-migration and poor nutritional profiles. Assuming that remittances may improve household economic resources and thus change dietary intake and health-related investment, household migration may be associated with both the risks of undernutrition and overnutrition. The analyses use longitudinal data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey and fixed-effect regressions. The results show that adults in emigrant household were significantly less susceptible to being underweight than those in non-migrant households, but they did not have increased risk of being overweight. The improved nutritional status was restricted to people in households with labor migrants, highlighting the role of remittances in improving nutritional intake. The health gain also was concentrated among women, increased with the number of out-migrants, and was revealed over time as remittances arrived. Overall, this study demonstrates the beneficial role of household migration, especially the resulting remittances, in the health status of household members in resource-constrained settings. Improving transfers of remittances would be helpful in reducing the problem of undernutrition in poor migrant-sending areas.

The family's economic resources and adolescents' health complaints--do adolescents' own economic resources matter?

The present study focuses on the relevance of economic resources to psychological and psychosomatic health complaints during adolescence. It explores the link between the family's and the adolescent's economic resources and investigates whether or not differences in health complaints by the family's financial situation can be explained by adolescents' own economic resources. Drawing on data from two Swedish surveys on living conditions during adolescence (in the age group 10-18 years) conducted in 2002-03, logistic regressions were used to assess the associations between adolescents' own and household economic resources on two measures of health complaints. The association between family economic hardship (i.e. lack of cash margin) and adolescents' health complaints largely disappeared when controlling for adolescents' own economic resources. Three measures of own absolute and relative economic resources were used. Out of these, the ability (or not) to buy things that others have was connected with both psychological [Odds ratio (OR) 2.16, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.6-2.9] and psychosomatic complaints (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.3-2.1), irrespective of age and gender. The importance of lacking a personal cash margin or not being able to join friends seemed to differ between age groups and genders. The importance of different aspects of economic resources seems to vary across age groups and gender. However, not being able to buy things that others have was clearly associated with health complaints irrespective of age and gender. Family economic hardship was associated with adolescents' health complaints, and this association was largely explained by adolescents' own economic resources.

Family structure and child outcomes: a high definition, wide angle “snapshot”

Using data from the National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF), this research investigates the relationships between a highly defined set of family structures and a broad set of child outcomes at a particular point in time in a child’s life. A detailed classification of family structures is constructed that clarifies key differences among various types of diverse families, and facilitates equivalencies testing and pairwise comparisons across nontraditional family structures. The NSAF contains a large number of observations for less common, but growing, family structures such as single-father families, grandparent-headed households and cohabiters, which makes such detailed analyses feasible and allows further stratification by child age, gender and race. The data also contains information on child behavioral, educational and physical health outcomes, as well as extensive household characteristics, economic resources and parental behaviors and inputs. Results suggest that differences across nontraditional family structures are particularly prominent for child health outcomes and that the gender of the resident parent is empirically important, more so than the presence of a cohabiting or married step-parent. Children in single father families have lesser access to health care yet enjoy better health outcomes than those in other families, even after controlling for economic resources (and inputs). In contrast, few differences are found between grandparent-headed families and other non-parent families. While we explore alternative explanations for these results, our cross-sectional data and complex set of family structure variables preclude isolating causal relationships; instead, our analyses yield empirically important distinctions that point to promising avenues for future research.

Young Carers in Australia:Understanding the Advantages and Disadvantages of Their Care Giving

Young Carers in Australia:Understanding the Advantages and Disadvantages of Their Care Giving

Economic Resources and Child Health: An Assessment of Certain Mechanisms

We use data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) to examine the relationship between child health and household economic resources, and find that economic resources as measured by equivalized expenditure have a statistically significant positive effect on child health and protect children from acute health conditions. We make additional use of the data (where extensive data on children’s nutrition, household sanitation, the utilization of medical care, and family health status are available) to assess the mechanisms through which economic resources may affect child health. We find evidence that economic resources have a sizable and significant effect on these potential intermediary factors, and that they, particularly household sanitation, partly explain the protective role of economic resources in child health.

Mothers' Community Participation and Child Health

We use rich data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey to assess the relationship between mothers' access to social capital via participation in community activities and their children's health. We exploit the advantages of longitudinal data and community fixed effects to mitigate some of the concerns about spuriousness and reverse causality that predominate in this literature. We find that children from families with relatively low levels of human and financial capital fare better with respect to health status when their mothers are more active participants in community organizations. In fact, the association between maternal participation and child health is strong and positive only for children from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds, as measured by their mothers' educational and household economic resources. The results suggest that in poorer settings community involvement may benefit disadvantaged families, possibly by providing resources and information that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Influence of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture on Childhood Obesity: Implications for Prevention and Treatment

Influence of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture on Childhood Obesity: Implications for Prevention and Treatment

The Role of Economic Resources and Human Capital with Woman Abuse

Abstract This study expands on current knowledge by examining the relationships among household economic resources, human capital, and various types of woman abuse. Logistic regression analyses were performed with a subsample from the 1999 National Crime Victimizaxtion Survey that includes Black, Hispanic, and White abused and non-abused women. Findings indicate that economic variables have divergent relationships with different types of woman abuse. For example, housing tenure is related to physical abuse, and lower levels of human capital are more highly correlated with physical abuse. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed.

Sociocultural and geographical disparities in child immunization in Nepal

Universal child immunization against vaccine-preventable diseases is recognized as one of the most cost-effective ways of reducing infant/child mortality in developing countries (Westly, 2003; Du Lou and Pison, 1996; Ministry of Health [Nepal], New Era, & ORC Macro, 2002; Department of Health Services/Nepal, 2000/2001). However, a considerable proportion of children living in many developing countries are deprived of receiving a complete course of immunization (Westly, 2003). In an effort to understand the key determinants of low prevalence of childhood immunization, previous studies have primarily focused on household structures (Gage, Sommerfelt and Piani, 1997; Bronte-Tinkew and Dejong, 2005); household economic resources (Bronte-Tinkew and Dejong, 2005); parental (particularly maternal) education (Desai and Alva, 1998; Streatfield, Singarimbun and Diamond, 1990); community contexts such as access to health services, community social structure and rural-urban residence (Pebley, Goldman and Rodriguez, 1996); access to health infrastructures and insurance (Gore and others, 1999), and political, institutional and organizational factors (Gauri and Khaleghian, 2002) as potential determinants. These studies have focused on Africa (e.g., Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago), Central America (e.g., Guatemala) and North America and do not reflect the relevance of sociocultural backgrounds and geographical disparities existing in Nepal.

Measuring the Relationship Between Youth Criminal Participation and Household Economic Resources

Using data from the NLSY97, this paper re-examines the empirical relationship between household economic resources and youth criminal participation. Previous estimates of this relationship have often suggested this relationship to be quite weak or even non-existent. However, this analysis suggests that much of the strength of the relationship between household economic resources and youth criminal participation may be obscured due to non-linearities in this relationship, the fact that this relationship is isolated to crimes of a serious nature only, and especially because of measurement error with respect to measuring household economic resources. I show that adjusting for these issues substantially increases the estimated strength of this relationship. Indeed, the results in this paper show that the differences in serious criminal participation between youth from households in the upper parts of the income distribution and youth from households in the lower parts of the income distribution appear to be greater than the difference in serious criminal participation between genders.

Dietary Energy Density Is Associated with Selected Predictors of Obesity in U.S. Children

Increasing rates of childhood overweight have been linked to the rising energy density of the diet. We sought to provide temporal profiles of dietary energy density (DED) in a nationally representative sample of U.S. children and adolescents < or = 19 y old and to describe associations between DED and predictors of overweight. We used a subset of data from the 1994-1996, 1998 Continuing Survey of Food Intake for Individuals (CSFII) and a multivariate regression model to determine independent associations between DED and socioeconomic and demographic variables after controlling for covariates. In this cross-sectional data set, DED was positively associated with total energy intakes and varied with both age and gender. DED increased from birth, peaked at 7-8 y of age, and then declined. Boys consumed more energy-dense diets than girls. Among children < or = 4 y old, higher DED was associated in the regression model with lower household incomes and with enrollment in the food stamp program. Among adolescents 12-19 y old, higher DED was associated with being African-American. In contrast, lower DED among children < or = 11 y old was associated with being Asian or Hispanic and with total daily consumption of fluid milk. The quality of the diet for young children, as indexed by high DED, may be adversely affected by limited household economic resources. Although food insecurity and WIC enrollment were not associated with DED in this study sample, milk consumption in children < or = 4 y old was associated with lower DED.

Completing Post-Earthquake Replacement Housing in Rural Armenia: Did it Induce Further Investment?

The housing of families in rural areas of Southeastern European and CIS countries often lacks water and sewerage services and is frequently in poor physical condition. This paper explores the private investment made as a result of a donor program in rural Armenia that in 2003 completed dwellings that were replacements for those destroyed in the 1988 earthquake. The questions addressed are: did the donor-funded investment induce beneficiaries to invest their own funds additionally, and, did beneficiaries invest more than their neighbors who did not participate in the program? Data used in the analysis are from household surveys conducted in three villages where the program operated; beneficiaries were interviewed at the time the construction was finished and again six months later; non-beneficiaries (controls) were interviewed six months after the program construction was completed. The study finds that direct program beneficiaries supplemented the publicly financed improvements and that the program may have induced non-beneficiaries to invest as well. For both groups, available household economic resources were the primary determinant of investments, although non-beneficiaries living in temporary housing were discouraged from undertaking improvements.

Americans' Dependency on Social Security

This paper determines the standard of living reductions that young, middle aged, and older households would experience were the U.S. government to cut Social Security benefits (but not taxes) to deal with its well documented (see Gokhale and Smetters, 2005) long-term fiscal crisis. To determine pre- and post-retirement living standards in the absence and presence of Social Security benefit cuts the paper relies on ESPlanner, a financial planning software program. ESPlanner calculates a household's highest sustainable living standard taking into account the household's economic resources including its claims to future Social Security benefits. The program also incorporates borrowing/liquidity constraints that limit households' abilities to smooth their living standards over their life cycles. The analysis considers both stylized single and married households of different ages and resource levels as well as actual households sampled from the 2004 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). The extent of current and future living standard reductions in response to announcements of future Social Security benefit cuts depends critically on the age of the household, when the cuts are announced, the size of the cuts, the income of the household, and the degree to which the household is liquidity constrained. For our stylized households on the brink of retirement the complete elimination of Social Security benefits would entail retirement living standards reductions ranging from roughly one third to one hundred percent depending on the household's income. Our SCF findings also point to a strong dependency on Social Security. Indeed, 41 percent of older SCF couples and 33 percent of SCF singles would experience a living standard reduction of 90 percent or more were Social Security benefits eliminated. A surprising finding is the major dependency of very high-income households on Social Security. Take the highest earning couple in our stylized sample. This couple earns $500,000 per year from age 30 through age 64 when it retires. It enters retirement with over $2.3 million in assets. But given the length of its potential retirement, the modest real return it can safely earn on its assets, its off-the-top housing expenses, and its tax payments, this household is highly dependent on Social Security benefits, notwithstanding their taxable status. Indeed, were this household denied all its Social Security benefits on the eve of its retirement, it would suffer a 35.6 percent reduction in its living standard throughout retirement.

Predictors of C‐reactive protein in Tsimane' 2 to 15 year‐olds in lowland Bolivia

Infectious disease is a major global determinant of child morbidity and mortality, and energetic investment in immune defenses (even in the absence of overt disease) is an important life-history variable, with implications for human growth and development. This study uses a biomarker of immune activation (C-reactive protein) to investigate an important aspect of child health among the Tsimane', a relatively isolated Amerindian population in lowland Bolivia. Our objectives are twofold: 1) to describe the distribution of CRP by age and gender in a cross-sectional sample of 536 2-15-year-olds; and 2) to explore multiple measures of pathogen exposure, economic resources, and acculturation as predictors of increased CRP. The median blood-spot CRP concentration was 0.73 mg/l, with 12.9% of the sample having concentrations greater than 5 mg/L, indicating a relatively high degree of immune activation in this population. Age was the strongest predictor of CRP, with the highest concentrations found among younger individuals. Increased CRP was also associated with higher pathogen exposure, lower household economic resources, and increased maternal education and literacy. The measurement of CRP offers a direct, objective indicator of immune activation, and provides insights into a potentially important pathway through which environmental quality may shape child growth and health.