Type | Working Paper |
Title | Learning Through Experience: Evidence From Prenatal Ramadan Exposure |
Author(s) | |
Publication (Day/Month/Year) | 2015 |
URL | http://individual.utoronto.ca/alfiakarimova/AlfiaKarimovaJMP.pdf |
Abstract | Fasting during pregnancy has adverse effects on fetal and adult health of the offspring. In the case of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, these effects can be avoided through mothers timing pregnancy to avoid Ramadan during the gestation period. This paper examines whether mothers time pregnancy to avoid Ramadan, and the mechanisms behind the avoidance behaviour. Using fertility data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey on women in the world’s largest Muslim country, I find strong evidence of Ramadan avoidance in the timing of contraceptive use. Because mothers plan pregnancy to avoid Ramadan, the probability of using contraceptives falls by 0.8 percentage points in the first month and by 1.2 percentage points in the second month after Ramadan. Analyzing the timing of conception, I find that mothers learn to avoid exposure to Ramadan from their prior experience of pregnancy during Ramadan, although the effects are modest. Moreover, my results suggest that expansion of Indonesia’s Village Midwife Program allowed mothers to use contraceptives, specifically birth control injections, to avoid Ramadan, as I find no evidence of avoidance behaviour before the program began. My findings imply a new channel through which family planning programs may improve child health – by allowing mothers to effectively plan pregnancy to avoid predictable variation in the prenatal environment. |
» | Indonesia - Family Life Survey 2000 |