Inequality of opportunity in infant mortality in South Asia: A decomposition analysis of survival data

Toshiaki Aizawa

Economics & Human Biology, 2021, vol. 43, issue C

Abstract: Early-life environments into which newborn babies are born play principal roles in their development. This study explores inequalities in infant mortality that are rooted in household and parental socio-economic backgrounds in five South-Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Considering multidimensional aspects of socio-demographic and socio-economic status, this study explores disparities in the trajectory of survival rates across infants with dissimilar circumstantial backgrounds over the first 12 months of their lives. This study proposes a new method to first cluster the data into advantaged and disadvantaged types and explore the differences in survival rates by a clustering approach and a random survival forest. Furthermore, this study extends a Shapley-value decomposition method to explore the determinants of inequality. The results indicate that demographic factors, parental educational background and household living standards are major factors contributing to inequality. In order to ameliorate the inequality of opportunity, priority should be given to protecting marginalised infants by compensating for their disadvantaged backgrounds.

Keywords: Infant mortality; Clustering; Random survival forest; Inequality of opportunity; South Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:43:y:2021:i:c:s1570677x21000836

DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101058

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