The birth-interval approach to the study of fertility reflects two aspects of the process of reproduction: (1) the quantum of fertility as indicated by the proportion of women who move to the next higher parity; and (2) the tempo of fertility, as measured by the time it takes to make the...

Notwithstanding the extensive social scientific research, there are still unanswered questions regarding the persistence of high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa. Although fertility behaviour depends on multiplicity of factors, childhood mortality is regarded as an important determinant.However,...

This paper goes beyond the physiological impact of infant deaths on fertility by examining whether such deaths elicit an explicit, conscious and intentional fertility response in sub-Saharan Africa. The major research questions are: what are the long term implications of childhood mortality on...

This article uses longitudinal data from the Philippines to examine whether the timing of malnutrition in early childhood is a critical factor in determining subsequent cognitive development. Although some observers have argued that the first six months of life are the most critical in the sense...

This article presents and illustrates a new methodology for testing hypotheses about the departure of marriage choices from baseline models of random mating in an actual kinship and marriage network of a human population. The fact that demographic constraints can drastically affect the raw...