This dissertation consists of three papers that examine topics related to the three
components of demography. This research is situated in rural Malawi and I evaluate
under-explored mechanisms in demographic and sociological research that aim to
explain fluctuations in fertility, the duration of migration spells, and predictors of oldage
health. The first paper assesses how famines and food crises might influence the
chances of giving birth in subsequent years. Individuals and households in many lowincome
nations face the prospect, and severe consequences, of food insecurity, yet the
effects of exposure to such episodes on fertility are not completely understood; Malawi
had a famine in 2002 and major food crisis in 2005-2006. The second paper questions
the extent to which the presence of family and friends in a migrant’s destination impacts
his or her length of stay in that location after controlling for economic, marital, regional,
and period factors that often strongly explain migration patterns. Like in many subSaharan
African countries, labor migration accounts for a large share of internal and
international migration, but recent research has also stressed the effects of marital
dissolutions and HIV/AIDS in this process as well. Nonetheless, the role of potential
support networks—comprised of family members and friends—on migration patterns
has been overlooked. The third paper responds to the National Academy of Sciences’
call for more research on aspects of aging in sub-Saharan Africa. While concerns about
population aging in sub-Saharan Africa are not new, few scholars conducting research
on the continent have examined how marital status and marital dissolutions are
associated with health among older individuals despite the fact that these are well
known, at least in high-income contexts, to be closely correlated with health outcomes.
Thus, I examine the relationship between marital status/dissolutions and health over
two years using several self-reported health metrics. In sum, these three papers seek to
expand the dialogue on alternative explanations to demographic processes, using the
case of rural Malawi.