Demand for Immunization, Parental Selection, and Child Survival

This study focuses on the estimation of household demand for immunization as well as its technological effect on the survival probability of a child in rural India. Careful attention is paid to the consequences of parental selection and heterogeneity on survival technology. The results suggest that child mortality is negatively related to the likelihood of purchasing vaccina-tion, but imperfect vaccination substantially reduce the beneficial effect. Results also suggest that mothers with a high risk of child mortality engage in compensatory behavior and ignoring this first type selection underestimates the impact of immunization on child survival. However, mothers also engage in complementary behavior by reinforcing endowments when they choose among different health inputs. The second type selection mitigates the effect of the first type of selection