Neonatal Death in India: The Effect of Birth Order in a Context of Maternal Under-nutrition

CASI Seminar
Dean Spears
Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Texas, Austin
Center for the Advanced Study of India
3600 Market Street, Suite 560 (5th floor)
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104

About the Speaker:
Dean Spears is an economic demographer and development economist. He is Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Texas, Austin, a Visiting Economist at the Economics and Planning Unit of the Indian Statistical Institute in Delhi, a founding Executive Director of r.i.c.e., and an affiliate of the Climate Futures Initiative at Princeton University. Along with Diane Coffey (Assistant Professor, UT, Austin), he is the author of the award-winning book, Where India Goes: Abandoned Toilets, Stunted Development, and the Costs of Caste.

About the Lecture:
Based on his collaborations with Diane Coffey, Dr. Spears documents a novel fact about neonatal death, or death in the first month of life: globally, neonatal mortality (NNM) is disproportionately concentrated in India. He identifies an effect of birth order on NNM that is unique to India—later-born siblings have a steep survival advantage relative to the birth order gradient in other developing countries—and shows that India's high prevalence of maternal under-nutrition and its correlation with age and childbearing can explain this effect, as well as how Indian mothers exit the underweight body mass range at an internationally comparatively high rate as they progress through childbearing careers.

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series is an endowed public program of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI). Launched in the 2007-08 academic year, and made possible through the generous support of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, the series brings renowned India specialists to the Penn community and serves as a critical forum for analyzing and understanding the complex economic, political, social, and cultural changes that the world’s largest democracy is experiencing, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
The Saluja Global Fellows Program has been made possible by the generous gift from Vishal Saluja ENG’89 W’89. CASI was excited to launch the program during the 2022–23 academic year, coinciding with the Center’s 30th Anniversary. This new program enables CASI to invite eminent leaders and rising experts on contemporary India preferably from the fields of media, culture, law, and contemporary history to be in residence for one to two weeks at CASI.