Kohler, Hans-Peter

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2010 - 201826
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End date: 2019 × Start date: 2010 ×

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 26
  • Publication
    Social Science Methods for Twins Data: Integrating Causality, Endowments and Heritability
    (2010-01-01) Kohler, Hans-Peter; Behrman, Jere R; Schnittker, Jason
    Twins have been extensively used in both economic and behavioral genetics to investigate the role of genetic endowments on a broad range of social, demographic and economic outcomes. However, the focus in these two literatures has been distinct: the economic literature has been primarily concerned with the need to control for unobserved endowments—including as an im¬portant subset, genetic endowments—in analyses that attempt to establish the impact of one vari¬able, often schooling, on a variety of economic, demographic and health outcomes. Behavioral genetic analyses have mostly been concerned with decomposing the variation in the outcomes of interest into genetic, shared environmental and non-shared environmental components, with recent multivariate analyses investigating the contributions of genes and the environment to the correlation and causation between variables. Despite the fact that twins studies and the recogni¬tion of the role of endowments are central to both of these literatures, they have mostly evolved independently. In this paper we develop formally the relationship between the economic and behavioral genetic approaches to the analyses of twins, and we develop an integrative approach that combines the identification of causal effects, which dominates the economic literature, with the decomposition of variances and covariances into genetic and environmental factors that is the primary goal of behavioral genetic approaches. We apply this new integrative approach to an illustrative investigation of the impact of schooling on several demographic outcomes such as fertility and nuptiality and health.
  • Publication
    Phase 1 Project Report. Social Networks and Norms: Sanitation in Bihar and Tamil Nadu, India
    (2017-12-31) Bicchieri, Cristina; Ashraf, Sania; Das, Upasak; Kohler, Hans-Peter; Kuang, Jinyi; McNally, Peter; Shpenev, Alexey; Thulin, Erik
  • Publication
    Phase 2 Project Report. Social Networks and Norms: Sanitation in Bihar and Tamil Nadu, India
    (2018-01-01) BICCHIERI, Cristina; Ashraf, Sania; Das, Upasak; Delea, Maryann; Kohler, Hans-Peter; Kuang, Jinyi; McNally, Peter; Shpenev, Alexey; Thulin, Erik
  • Publication
    Up, Down and Reciprocal: The Dynamics of Intergenerational Transfers, Family Structure and Health in a Low-Income Context
    (2017-06-07) Payne, Collin F.; Pesando, Luca Maria; Kohler, Hans-Peter
    In the absence of well-functioning public transfer systems and safety nets, the family acts as the key provider of income and support through the intergenerational redistribution of resources. In this paper we use micro-level longitudinal data and a mix of methodologies to document the lifecycle patterns of financial transfers in a rural, sub-Saharan African population. Underneath a well-established age-pattern of intergenerational transfers in which transfer patterns change according to broad stages of the economic life cycle, our analyses document significant heterogeneity and fluidity: Intergenerational transfers are variable and reverse their direction, with individuals moving between the provider and recipient states repeatedly across their life course and within each major stage of the life-cycle. Contrary to common perceptions about family transfers ameliorating short-term shocks, transfers in our analyses are driven primarily by demographic factors such as changes in health, household size, and household composition, rather than short-term events. Overall our analyses suggest that the role of transfers in this rural sub-Saharan context is significantly more complex than suggested by theories and evidence on aggregate transfer patterns, and at the micro-level, intergenerational transfers encapsulate multiple functions ranging from direct exchange to old-age support in the absence of a public pension system.
  • Publication
    Perception of HIV risk and the quantity and quality of children: The case of rural Malawi
    (2010-11-29) Castro, Ruben; Behrman, Jere R; Kohler, Hans-Peter
    The empirical literature on HIV and the quality (Q) and quantity (N) of children generally reports negative associations for Q and unclear associations for N. We focus our analysis on the effects of HIV, as a predictor of mother and child mortality, on investments in child Q and N. We develop a Q-N model within which higher mothers’ mortality predicts lower N while higher child mortality predicts lower Q. Those effects together make reasonable the expectation of negative influences of higher HIV likelihood on child Q and N. Based on longitudinal micro data on mothers and their children in rural Malawi we find that variation in mothers’ reported HIV risk reduces both child quality, as reflected in children’s schooling and health, and child quantity, when the perceived risk is already moderate or high. The effects are sizable, and, in the case of Q (schooling and health) are found in children and teenagers, as well as boys and girls, while in the case of N are found for young and mature women.
  • Publication
    The Demography of Mental Health Among Mature Adults in a Low-Income High HIV-Prevalence Context
    (2015-04-21) Kohler, Iliana V; Payne, Collin F.; Bandawe, Chiwoza; Kohler, Hans-Peter
    While a nascent body of research investigates the shift in sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA's) disease burden towards non-communicable diseases (NCDs), very few studies have investigated mental health, specifically depression and anxiety (DA), in SSA. Using the 2012--13 Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH), this paper provides a first picture of the demography of DA among mature adults (= persons aged 45+) in a low-income high HIV-prevalence context. DA are more frequent among women than men, and individuals are often affected by both. DA are associated with adverse outcomes, such as less nutrition intake and reduced work efforts. DA also increase substantially with age for both females and males, and mature adults can expect to spend a substantial fraction of their remaining life time---for instance, 52% for a 55 year old woman---affected by DA. The positive age-gradients of DA are not due to cohort effects, and they are in sharp contrast to the age pattern of mental health that have been shown in high-income contexts where older individuals often experience lower levels of DA and better subjective well-being than middle-aged individuals. While socioeconomic and risk/uncertainty-related stressors are strongly associated with DA, they do not explain the positive age gradients and gender gap in DA. Stressors related to physical health, however, do. Hence, our analyses suggest that the general decline of physical strength and health with age, as is indicated by hand grip strength, and the interference of poor physical health with daily activities, are key drivers of the rise of DA with age among mature adults.
  • Publication
    High Development and Fertility: Fertility at Older Reproductive Ages and Gender Equality Explain the Positive Link
    (2011-10-03) Myrskylä, Mikko; Kohler, Hans-Peter; Billari, Francesco
    A fundamental switch in the fertility—development relationship has occurred so that among highly developed countries, further socioeconomic development may reverse the declining fertility trend. Here we shed light on the mechanisms underlying this reversal by analyzing the links between development and age and cohort patterns of fertility, as well as the role of gender equality. Using data from 1975 to 2008 for over 100 countries, we show that the reversal exists both in a period and a cohort perspective and is mainly driven by increasing older reproductive-age fertility. We also show that the positive impact of development on fertility in high-development countries is conditional on gender equality: countries ranking high in development as measured by health, income, and education but low in gender equality continue to experience declining fertility. Our findings suggest that gender equality is crucial for countries wishing to reap the fertility dividend of high development.
  • Publication
    Demographic Transition Revisited: Low Fertility, Socioeconomic Development, and Gender Equity
    (2015-05-15) Anderson, Thomas M.; Kohler, Hans-Peter
    While new empirical findings and theoretical frameworks provide insight into the interrelations between socioeconomic development, gender equity, and low fertility, puzzling exceptions and outliers in these findings call for a more all-encompassing framework to understand the inter-play between these processes. We argue that the pace and onset of development are two important factors to be considered when analyzing gender equity and fertility. Within the developed world, “first-wave developers”—or countries that began socioeconomic development in the 19th/early 20th century – currently have much higher fertility levels than “late developers”. We lay out a novel theoretical approach to explain why this is the case and provide empirical evidence to support our argument. Our approach not only explains historical periods of low fertility but also sheds light on why there exists such large variance in fertility rates among to-day’s developed countries.
  • Publication
    Education Fever and the East Asian Fertility Puzzle: A Case Study of Low Fertility in South Korea
    (2012-10-01) Anderson, Thomas M.; Kohler, Hans-Peter
    Fertility throughout East Asia has fallen rapidly over the last five decades and is now below the replacement rate of 2.1 in every country in the region. While similar but less extreme declines occurred throughout Europe during this same period, the declines to lowest-low fertility during the 1990s have been reversed in the last ten years as the pace of tempo changes (i.e., the postponement of childbearing) has slowed. Recent literature has shown that many European countries have in fact also experienced increases in cohort fertility. No such widespread fertility reversal has occurred in East Asia, where family size (i.e., cohort fertility) continues to decline. In this paper we seek to explain the precipitous (and in some cases, continual) fertility declines in East Asia. Using South Korea as a case study, we argue that East Asia’s ultra-low fertility rates can be partially explained by the steadfast parental drive to have competitive and successful children. Parents throughout the region invest high amounts of time and money to ensure their children are able to enter prestigious universities and obtain top jobs. Accordingly, children have become so expensive that the average couple cannot afford to have more than just one or two. We argue that the trend of high parental investment in child education, also known as “education fever”, exemplifies the notion of “quality over quantity” and is an important contributing factor to understanding low-fertility in East Asia.
  • Publication
    Marriage as a Mechanism: Women’s Education and Wealth in Malawi
    (2012-09-01) Spell, Sarah; Anglewicz, Philip; Kohler, Hans-Peter
    Research has found that in the United States women have greater economic returns to a college degree than men, because of more stable marriages and other family income. Using cross-sectional data of women aged 19-40 years in Malawi from the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (n = 898), we test whether higher education is associated with these same benefits in a context with lower educational attainment levels, fewer job opportunities, and different marriage patterns. We find that better educated women are more likely to have better educated spouses and higher household wealth. Though divorce is negatively associated with wealth, we do not find an association between education and divorce. This analysis provides motivation for further research on the how education is associated with outcomes for women in developing countries.