Year: 2009
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Using data I collected in Africa, this paper examines a household's decision to adjust its size through child fostering, an institution where biological parents temporarily send children to live with other families.Households experiencing negative idiosyncratic income shocks, child gender imbalances, located further from primary schools, or with more ''good'' quality network members (fewer subsistence farmers and unmarried individuals and more educated members) are significantly more likely to send a child.Results reject an overall symmetric fostering model across senders and receivers, but evidence of symmetry is found when the test is restricted to exogenous income shocks and gender imbalances.
Source: The Journal of Human Resources
Author: Richard Akresh
Institutions: Boston University, Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo, World Bank, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, William & Mary, University of California, Irvine, University of Chicago, Institut Superieur Des Sciences De La Population, University College London, Université de Montréal, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Language: English
Subfield: Demography
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4242123659