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Women empowerment and infant mortality in Bangladesh
Authors: Belayet Hossain
Source: Applied Economics, Published online: 02 Jun 2015; DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2015.1051657
Topic(s): Infant mortality
Women’s empowerment
Country: Asia
  Bangladesh
Published: JUN 2015
Abstract: This study attempts to investigate the effects of women empowerment on infant mortality in Bangladesh. Four indicators have been considered to measure four dimensions of women empowerment: the level of education, participation in household (HH) decisions, autonomy in movements and employment status. The rotated factor analysis technique is used to construct the last three dimensions. The Weibull parametric survival model has been specified and estimated using the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) data of 2011. The results show that three measures of empowerment (the level of education, participation in HH decisions and autonomy in movements) contribute significantly to the reduction of infant mortality. But women employment is associated with increased mortality for infants. The findings of this study have a number of policy implications on this issue for a developing country like Bangladesh.
Web: https://www.aabss.org.au/system/files/published/000760-published-acbss-2015-sydney.pdf