The proposed research is concerned with the development of approaches to evaluating the impact of family planning and medical inputs on infant health. The major objective of the research is the measurement of the joint effects of family behavior, environmental factors and health program inputs, such as the use and availability of medical inputs, female labor-force participation, family size, cigarette smoking and pollutants, on infant mortality rates and birthweight. Statistical procedures will be used which take into account the potentially simultaneous nature of related household decisions and child health outcomes. Data on socioeconomic characteristics of family members, behavior, and measures of child health from national surveys will be analyzed in conjunction with aggregate data on the price and availability of various medical services in the region in which the household resides. The areal information on prices and conditions confronting the household may be assumed exogenous to its behavior and health outcomes. Linking this areal data to household records permits, therefore, one to identify how a variety of program activities and prices affect birthweight and child survival both directly and indirectly by influencing related household behavior. Within the limitations of existing data files and the many and imperfectly integrated hypotheses concerning the causes of child health status, the proposed research aims to test certain of these hypotheses in a common statistical and economic framework.
