Household Economic Well-being and Child Health in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Janvier Mwisha Kasiwa ()
Additional contact information
Janvier Mwisha Kasiwa: Department of Economics, University of Goma

Journal of African Development, 2018, vol. 20, issue 1, 48-58

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of economic wellbeing of households on child health in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) using data from the Demographic and Health Survey for 2014. A series of econometric tools are used to estimate the effects. The control function approach is shown to be the most appropriate estimation method. The results show that an increase in household economic wellbeing reduces child malnutrition. It is also found that younger children are more likely to be underweight, and that birth weight is a significant determinant of nutritional status up to age five. The main policy implication of the paper is that creation of jobs and other economic opportunities would enhance child health in DRC via improvements in living conditions.

Keywords: Child health; Economic well-being; Household; Africa; DR Congo (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C35 D13 I12 I31 I32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.afeawpapers.org/RePEc/afe/afe-journl/wp ... n1_Spring_2018_7.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:afe:journl:v:20:y:2018:i:1:p:48-58

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of African Development from African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christian Nsiah ().