SGER: Contraceptive Adoption and Household Wellbeing: A Field Experiment in Lusaka, Zambia

SGER：避孕药具的采用和家庭福祉：赞比亚卢萨卡的现场实验

• 批准号: 0725075
• 负责人: Erica Field
• 金额: $ 4.78万
• 依托单位: National Bureau of Economic Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-05-01 至 2008-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0725075&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SGER; Contraceptive; Adoption; Household; Wellbeing

This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) supports an experimental study on fertility. The study uses a novel setting and experimental design, implemented with a family planning clinic in Lusaka, Zambia, to test whether women who desire to limit fertility but do not use contraception are constrained by spouses' preferences for children or unwillingness to use birth control. Although there is strong anecdotal evidence that spousal control over fertility can constrain women's choices, this is the first field experiment that can test the extent of this important factor in fertility decisions and outcomes, by randomizing husband's knowledge of his wife's access to contraception through providing family planning vouchers either to the wife alone (treatment group A), or the wife in the presence of her husband (treatment group B). Injectable contraception is available to women in Zambia but there is often a long wait; this experimental design increases access among all study subjects, in both treatment groups above, through the distribution of vouchers guaranteeing free and immediate access to this method at the local public health clinic. The increase in access created through this design allows the investigators, with sufficient sample size and a control group, to address other questions fundamental to fertility and development.This study will contribute methodologically to the literature by generating the first experimental estimates of the impact on women and children of increasing women's control over birth number, timing and spacing, through access to long-term, commitment-oriented contraception. Most empirical studies of fertility choices and outcomes suffer from identification problems. Although the influence of contraception on female and family outcomes is a central question in the demography and economics literatures, there have been no experimental evaluations of contraceptive access, and quasi-experimental or retrospective studies suffer from the usual identification problems. Hence, this proposed methodology is a valuable application of a new approach to an established topic. In addition, the sub-component that randomizes husbands' knowledge will shed light on intra-household bargaining dynamics that inform fertility decisions.Broader Impact: Better understanding of the intra-household determinants of contraceptive adoption and the impacts of contraception on family health and wellbeing has important implications for the design of family planning policies. In addition, by making use of the opportunity presented by the experiment to measure the importance of peer effects in contraceptive adoption, this study provides evidence on the extent to which contraceptive knowledge spreads through social networks to create changes in fertility norms. Improved understanding of both determinants and impact of contraceptive adoption is critical for deciding the amount and nature of resources that should be provided by governments for family planning in resource-constrained countries.

这项探索性研究小额赠款（SGER）支持一项关于生育的实验性研究。这项研究采用了一种新颖的环境和实验设计，由赞比亚卢萨卡的一家计划生育诊所实施，以测试希望限制生育但不使用避孕措施的妇女是否受到配偶对孩子的偏好或不愿意使用避孕措施的限制。虽然有强有力的轶事证据表明，配偶对生育的控制可以限制妇女的选择，但这是第一个可以测试这一重要因素在生育决定和结果中的程度的现场实验，通过随机分配丈夫对妻子获得避孕药具的了解，方法是向妻子单独提供计划生育券（治疗组A），或向妻子提供丈夫在场的计划生育券（治疗组B）。赞比亚妇女可以获得注射避孕药具，但往往需要等待很长时间；该实验设计通过发放代金券，保证在当地公共卫生诊所免费和立即获得这种方法，增加了上述两个治疗组中所有研究对象的可及性。通过这种设计创造的访问机会的增加使研究人员有足够的样本量和一个对照组，可以解决与生育和发育有关的其他基本问题。这项研究将在方法上对文献作出贡献，因为它首次对妇女和儿童通过获得长期的、面向承诺的避孕措施来加强妇女对生育人数、时间和间隔的控制所产生的影响进行实验性估计。大多数关于生育选择和结果的实证研究都存在识别问题。尽管避孕对女性和家庭结果的影响是人口学和经济学文献中的一个中心问题，但没有对避孕药具获取进行实验评估，准实验或回顾性研究也存在常见的识别问题。因此，这个建议的方法是一个有价值的新方法的应用，以建立一个主题。此外，随机化丈夫知识的子成分将揭示家庭内部讨价还价的动态，从而为生育决策提供信息。更广泛的影响：更好地了解采用避孕措施的家庭内部决定因素以及避孕对家庭健康和福祉的影响，对计划生育政策的设计具有重要意义。此外，通过利用实验提供的机会来衡量同伴效应在避孕措施采用中的重要性，本研究为避孕知识通过社会网络传播以创造生育规范变化的程度提供了证据。提高对采用避孕药具的决定因素和影响的了解，对于决定资源有限国家政府应为计划生育提供的资源的数量和性质至关重要。