@article{624006dac6a8439faaeb3e42b4c5c650,
title = "Household demography and early childhood mortality in a rice-farming village in northern laos",
abstract = "This paper extends Alexandr Chayanov's model of changing household demography (specifically the ratio of food consumers to food producers) and its influence on agricultural behavior so that it includes possible adverse effects of a rising ratio on nutritional status and early childhood mortality within the household. We apply the model to 35 years' worth of longitudinal demographic and economic data collected in the irrigated-rice growing village of Na Savang in northern Laos. When appropriate controls are included for other household variables, unobserved inter-household heterogeneity, and changes in local conditions and national policy over the study period, the analysis suggests that a unit increase in the household's consumer/producer ratio induces something like a nine-fold increase in the risk of death among household members aged less than five years. Monte Carlo simulation studies suggest that this may be an over-estimate but also that the effect is probably real and likely to be an important factor in household demography. At the very least, the results suggest that Chayanov's model still has theoretical relevance and deserves to be revived.",
author = "Shinsuke Tomita and Parker, {Daniel M.} and Jennings, {Julia A.} and James Wood",
note = "Funding Information: We thank the people of Na Savang village for their hospitality, generosity, and good cheer in putting up with our questions and our tramping through their fields. Their active assistance during fieldwork was essential to the success of the project. We would also like to thank several readers for their comments, criticisms, and suggestions, including Pat Johnson, Anne Buchanan, Sharon DeWitte, George (PJ) Perry, Tim Gage, Stephen Matthews, Chris Jazwa, Sara Getz, Bettina Shell-Duncan, Ruth Mace, and one anonymous reviewer. The manuscript was substantially improved by what they had to say—but, since not all their suggestions were adopted, the authors themselves must be considered solely to blame for any remaining errors of fact, analysis, or interpretation. Support for the field surveys was generously provided by the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (Kyoto) under the project A Transdisciplinary Study of the Regional Eco-History of Tropical Monsoon Asia, 1945–2005; we are especially indebted to Prof. Yasuyuki Kono (Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University), who was director of the Na Savang portion of that project. Field support was also provided by the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI) of the Lao PDR (Vientiane); we are grateful to Bounthang Buahom and Linkham Douangsavanh, Director General and Deputy Director General, respectively, of the NAFRI, for all their help. We also thank the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature in Kyoto for funding a brief but rewarding trip to Na Savang by three of the four authors. Finally, we are pleased to acknowledge the assistance provided by the Population Research Institute at Penn State, which is supported by an infrastructure grant from the National Institutes of Health (2R24HD041025–11). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 Tomita et al.",
year = "2015",
month = mar,
day = "16",
doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0119191",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "10",
journal = "PloS one",
issn = "1932-6203",
publisher = "Public Library of Science",
number = "3",
}