Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Despite over 100 years of a widening differential between men’s and women’s death rates, recent studies have shown that the gap is now narrowing in a large number of countries throughout the developed world. This study examines the effect of gender equality on this convergence in the mortality rates between the sexes. Using the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), I study the effect of gender equality on the sex mortality ratios for different age groups and causes of death in 45 countries around the world. My findings indicate that higher levels of national gender equality are associated with a smaller differential between male and female mortality rates. Ultimately, the study concludes that the narrowing differential is due to the greater effect of gender equality on male mortality rather than on female mortality.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Multiple regression is used to explore democracy's association with the share of GDP devoted to public health care spending, the utilization of basic health care and other social services, and under-5 mortality. The data come from 104 developing countries observed in 1990. Controls are included for geographic, demographic, cultural, and economic factors. The analysis finds that long-term democratic experience, but not short-term democratic practice, is associated significantly with lower under-5 mortality. The association between long-term democratic experience and lower under-5 mortality is mediated by the provision of basic health and education services, but not by the share of GDP devoted to public health care spending.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Abstract
Objectives This article examines the impacts of race/ethnicity and nativity on differential liver cancer mortality of non-Hispanic white and Mexican-origin populations. Particular attention is given to the ways that liver cancer mortality among the Spanish-surnamed population of Texas challenges the tenets of the Epidemiologic Paradox. Methods Pooled death certificate data allow the construction of logistic regression models which test the hypothesis that the odds of liver cancer mortality among Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans are similar to those experienced by non-Hispanic whites. Results Logit estimates reveal positive, statistically significant effects of Spanish surname and immigrant status on liver cancer mortality. Conclusions These findings offer no support for the assertion that Mexican-origin race/ethnicity and immigrant status may be protective against liver cancer mortality.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The bio-developmental view sees the readiness and soundness of the organism at the time of first birth as its prime link to health and survival years and decades later. It suggests an optimum age at first birth shortly after puberty. The bio-social view emphasizes social correlates and consequences of age at first birth that may influence health and survival many years later. It suggests that better health and survival come from delaying motherhood as long as possible. Analyses consistently find patterns more in keeping with the bio-social view in a U.S. national sample of women ages 25 through 95. The fitted curves show high levels of current health problems among women who first gave birth shortly after puberty. Problems drop steadily the longer that first birth was delayed, up to about age 30. The downward slope then gradually flattens with each additional year of having delayed, up to about age 34. The ratio of health problems expected given first birth under age 18 versus at around 34 equals that from currently being 14 years older. Health problems rise steeply with length of having delayed beyond age 40. Mortality hazard also declines with having delayed first birth well beyond the end of puberty. The ratio between mothers with early versus late first births equals that from a 10 year difference in current years of age.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper analyzes and discusses fertility trends in the years following the fall of the Khmers Rouges’ regime in Cambodia, a regime characterized by a mortality crisis of an unmatched intensity in the second half of the 20th century. Reviews of demographic responses to exogenous shocks in historical populations (e.g., Lee 1997) suggest that post-crisis fertility rebounds are not uncommon but driven by marital fertility surges that result from the increase in the number of susceptible women following the conception dearth during a crisis. There was clearly a post-Khmer-Rouge baby boom in Cambodia but some of its features do not seem to fit the standard explanation above. The data analyzed in this paper were hence collected specifically to allow for more detailed analyses of the components of the Cambodian baby boom.