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The Consequences of Fertility for Child Health in Kenya: Endogeneity, Heterogeneity and Application of the Control Function approach * .

This paper investigates the consequences of fertility for child health in Kenya using Demographic and Health Survey data. To take into account serious identification issues in the relationship between fertility and child health, instrumental variable estimation methods are used. Occurrence of first multiple births and cluster level use of modern contraception are used as instruments for fertility in determination of mortality of a non multiple birth child. The control function approach is further used to take into account heterogeneity and complementarities arising from unobservable determinants of child health. The results show that endogenous fertility has a positive significant impact on child mortality. The occurrence of first multiple births and use of modern contraception methods are valid instruments for fertility. Tests for nonlinearities, heterogeneity and complementarities suggest the presence of heterogeneity arising from interaction of fertility with unobserved determinants of child mortality. We conclude that failure to control for endogeneity and heterogeneity would lead to erroneous estimates of the impact of fertility on child health and thus result in misleading policy conclusions.