Forces which link biological and behavioral factors to infant mortality and fertility in the United States are examined. Estimates can be arrived at if all of the important types of behavior affecting infant survival prices and income constraints facing households are diligently gathered. Using equations to determine the relationship between a family health endowment index in conjunction with a childs health information about optimal prenatal and postnatal behavior can be estimated and observed. This estimate which is strongly a factor of parental and environmental health related factors attempts to characterize the biological effects of parents behavior on birthweight gestation and the rate of fetal growth. Another estimate presented is one which establishes a link between biological effects of birth order on infant mortality. In this analysis factors such as medical care during pregnancy mothers rate of smoking mothers age duration of breastfeeding mothers race and childs sex were included. Household socioeconomic and health data were also estimated in order to understand state and county ability to provide adequate health facilities for pre and postnatal maternal care. In particular results suggest that child mortality declines in developed countries and that mothers seek prenatal medical care in early stages of their pregnancy when risk is anticipated. Further study of the differential pattern of black and white fertility behavior in regard to seeking medical care is warranted.

The authors examine how intrafamily resource allocations respond to changes in economic conditions and to genetic differences in children by estimating the determinants of variations in the sex-specific survival differentials of rural Indian children based on standard census and household survey data....[They] explore in particular the hypothesis that such differences are related to the relative returns to survival with households selectively allocating resources to children in response to variation in sex differences in their expected earnings opportunities as adults. Data are from the 1961 census and a 1971 household survey. (EXCERPT)

Private wage returns to schooling in South Africa in 1993 are twice as high for nonwhites as for whites and substantially higher at advanced levels of schooling for both races. To explore how these returns might be expected to change as the proportion of Africans with secondary and higher education increases quantile regressions for the wage function are estimated for African males and white males. If the residuals based on a standard wage function specification are interpreted as omitted ability and it is assumed that ability increases (decreases) returns to schooling then we expect quantile returns to increase (decrease) at higher quantiles. This is not observed for Africans at the higher and secondary school level but is evident among whites at higher educational levels. The opposite pattern of differential returns favoring the least able (i.e. lowest deciles) is reported for the lower tail of the educational distribution that is for Africans at the level of primary school and for whites at secondary school. (authors)