Does Father's Education Make a Difference on Child Mortality? Result from Benin DHS Data Using Conditional Logit Discrete-Time Model

Fortuné Sossa, Université de Montréal

Evidence from most studies in developing countries suggests that mother’s education is strongly associated with child mortality than father's education (for whom we recognize his socioeconomic role in the household). This paper attempts to examine the association between father's education and child mortality by looking if there is an alteration with community level variation (such as health care offer and a number of socioeconomic and cultural characteristics). We employ data from Benin Demographic and Health Surveys in 2006 using standard logit discrete-time and conditional logit discrete-time model controlling for unobserved community-level factors. Results show a significant and negative association between father’s education and the probability of dying among children of educated mothers. In contrast, no statistically significant effect has not been found among children of uneducated mothers. More research is also necessary to know if this effect occur at all age of the children.