Abstract

Interest is growing in the research literature in exploring how child nutrition is affected by sociocultural practices, such as polygyny. However, evaluation of the effect of polygyny on child nutrition is hindered by the complexity of the relationship. This paper investigates the effect of polygyny on anthropometric outcomes while recognising that unobservable household characteristics may simultaneously influence both the decision to form a polygynous union and the ability of the household to adequately nourish children. We apply an instrumental variable approach based on the occurrence of same-sex siblings in a woman’s first two births to generate exogenous variation in polygyny. Using data from the 2008 and 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys, we find a detrimental effect of polygyny on child undernutrition. Our results show that the effect of polygyny is substantially reduced when we control for household characteristics, suggesting that part of the link between polygyny and child undernutrition is mediated through these channels. Nevertheless, the estimated coefficients of polygyny remain sizeable and strongly statistically significant even after controlling for these characteristics. Polygynous families may have different behavioural childcare practices, and/or the reduced bargaining power of women associated with polygynous families could be associated with higher rates of child undernutrition.

摘要

研究文献对探索儿童营养如何受到社会文化习俗（例如一夫多妻制）的影响越来越感兴趣。然而，这种关系的复杂性阻碍了对一夫多妻制对儿童营养影响的评估。本文研究了一夫多妻制对人体测量结果的影响，同时认识到不可观察的家庭特征可能同时影响形成一夫多妻制联盟的决定和家庭充分养育儿童的能力。我们基于女性前两次生育中同性兄弟姐妹的出现应用工具变量方法来产生一夫多妻制的外生变异。使用 2008 年和 2013 年尼日利亚人口与健康调查的数据，我们发现一夫多妻制对儿童营养不良的不利影响。我们的结果表明，当我们控制家庭特征时，一夫多妻制的影响大大降低，这表明一夫多妻制与儿童营养不良之间的部分联系是通过这些渠道进行调节的。尽管如此，即使在控制了这些特征之后，一夫多妻的估计系数仍然相当大并且具有很强的统计显着性。一夫多妻家庭可能有不同的行为育儿做法，和/或与一夫多妻家庭相关的妇女议价能力降低可能与儿童营养不良率较高有关。即使在控制了这些特征之后，一夫多妻的估计系数仍然相当大，并且具有很强的统计显着性。一夫多妻家庭可能有不同的行为育儿做法，和/或与一夫多妻家庭相关的妇女议价能力降低可能与儿童营养不良率较高有关。即使在控制了这些特征之后，一夫多妻的估计系数仍然相当大，并且具有很强的统计显着性。一夫多妻家庭可能有不同的行为育儿做法，和/或与一夫多妻家庭相关的妇女议价能力降低可能与儿童营养不良率较高有关。