Fertility studies have often focused on the behavioral and attitudinal attributes of women with regard to fertility. Until recently, the role of men in fertility studies have often been ignored within much of the literature concerning fertility decisions. The focus of this study will examine if differences exist between husbands and wives with regard to the following four aspects of fertility decisions: spacing of children, methods of family planning, sex preference, and desired family size. The data were collected from 125 households in Kitwe, Zambia. Identical questionnaires were submitted to the husbands and wives during separate interviews. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. Overall, no significant differences exist among husbands and wives with regard to the four aspects of fertility decisions being researched.

Despite the increased focus on men in reproductive research, little is known about male involvement in the initial decision/s regarding parenthood (i.e., to become a parent or not) and the subsequent decision-making that may ensue (e.g., choices about timing or spacing of births). In particular, the parenthood decision-making of “White”, heterosexual men from the middle class has been understudied, as indicated in the existing literature. In South Africa, this oversight has been exacerbated by the tendency for researchers to concentrate on “problematic” men, to the exclusion of the “boring, normal case”. I argue that this silence in the literature is a result of the taken for granted nature of parenthood in the “normal” heterosexual life course. In this study, I have turned the spotlight onto the norm of “Whiteness” and heterosexuality by studying those who have previously been overlooked by researchers. I focus on “White” Afrikaans men’s involvement in parenthood decision-making. My aim was to explore how constructions of gender inform male involvement in decision-making, especially within the South African context where social transformation has challenged traditional conceptions of male selfhood giving rise to new and contested masculine identities and new discourses of manhood and fatherhood. In an effort to ensure that women’s voices are not marginalised in the research, as is often the case in studies of men and masculinity, I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews about male involvement in decision-making with both “White” Afrikaans women and men. There were 23 participants in total, who all identified as heterosexual and middle-class. The participants were divided into two age cohorts (21 – 30 years and >40 years), which were then differentiated according to gender, reproductive status, and relationship status. Treating the interviews as jointly produced narratives, I analysed them by means of a performativity/performance lens. This dual analytic lens focuses on how particular narrative performances are simultaneously shaped by the interview setting and the broader discursive context. The lens was fashioned by synthesising Butler’s theory of performativity with Taylor’s narrative-discursive method. This synthesis (1) allows for Butler’s notion of “performativity” to be supplemented with that of “performance”; (2) provides a concrete analytical strategy in the form of positioning analysis; and (3) draws attention to both the micro politics of the interview conversation and the operation of power on the macro level, including the possibility of making “gender trouble”. The findings of the study suggest that the participants experienced difficulty narrating about male involvement in parenthood decision-making, owing to the taken for granted nature of parenthood for heterosexual adults. This was evident in participants’ sidelining of issues of “deciding” and “planning” and their alternate construal of childbearing as a non-choice, which, significantly served to bolster hetero-patriarchal norms. A central rhetorical tool for accomplishing these purposes was found in the construction of the “sacralised” child. In discursively manoeuvring around the central problematic, the participants ultimately produced a “silence” in the data that repeats the one in the research literature.

This dissertation addresses three separate questions in human capital and development economics. In the first chapter, I study how college admission concerns drive students' field choices in a field-specific college admission system. To study this question, I leverage a college admission policy reform in Ethiopia that sharply increased the proportion of college seats in public universities allocated to college STEM fields. The reform significantly decreased the admission selectivity of STEM fields in the short run. Using cohort analysis and a regression discontinuity design, I show that students are significantly more likely to choose the STEM fields after the reform. More importantly, I find significant heterogeneity in the field choice response, with the marginal students responding more strongly compared to the infra-marginal students. In addition, using a complier characteristics analysis, I show that the reform led to a significant sorting on field-specific skills. In particular, those induced to choose the STEM fields have a comparative advantage in skills valued more in the STEM fields. These overall and field-specific sorting significantly changed the peer quality in STEM and non-STEM fields. These findings imply that admission concerns play a significant role in students' field choices. However, students do not naively sort into less selective college fields. Instead, their choices are consistent with their relative position in the distribution of multi-dimensional skills. The latter suggests that students make more informed and rational choices than the existing literature suggests. In the second chapter, I investigate the effect of the fast expansion of the Second Generation (2G) and Third Generation (3G) mobile technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) on health literacy in the region. Using Demographic and Health Surveys data from 25 countries in SSA and a historical mobile network coverage map, I estimate an Instrumental Variable (IV) specification. I show that the widespread use of these technologies has significantly improved health literacy in the region. Specifically, access to either technology significantly decreases misconceptions and wrong beliefs about diseases and health. The benefits are substantial in regions where the technologies have been available longer. Consistent with the range of services it provides, 3G technology results in a larger gain in health literacy. These findings imply that mobile technologies have considerable potential to improve health and quality of life in many developing countries. In the final chapter, I study the relationship between birth spacing and children's outcomes, focusing on the mechanisms that underlie the relationship. Using linked mother-child data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), I explore two mechanisms: the maternal health and physiology channel and the material and parental time input channel. The result shows that a short pre-birth inter-pregnancy interval negatively affects the birth endowments of children, highlighting the importance of the birth spacing effect that works through the maternal health and physiology channel. The study also provides evidence in support of the material and parental time input channel. In particular, I show that closely spaced siblings score significantly lower on the standardized Peabody International Achievement Test (PIAT), a wide-range measure of academic achievement for children aged five and above. On the other hand, I find limited evidence of the birth spacing effect on long-term outcomes such as schooling and labor market outcomes. These findings have implications for parental leave and other labor market policies affecting the birth spacing choices of parents.

The aim of the study was to develop strategies to reduce the unmet need for modern contraception among agro-pastoral women. The objectives of the study were to determine the prevalence of unmet need for modern contraception, determine the factors associated with unmet need for modern contraception, and explore the barriers that hindered agro-pastoral women from using modern contraception. A mixed-method research design was used to conduct the study. Data were collected from agro-pastoral women and family planning service providers. Questionnaire and individual in-depth interviews were used to collect the data. The validity and reliability of the quantitative data and trustworthiness of the qualitative data were ensured. Use of standard data collection tools, employing method and data triangulation, and documenting all the procedures of data collection and analysis were among the ways employed to do so The quantitative data were analysed using simple descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the qualitative data. Ethical principles of research such as beneficence, justice, informed consent, respect for persons, privacy and confidentiality and scientific integrity were considered to conduct the study. The study revealed an unmet need of 29.2% (n=112) for modern contraception among agro-pastoral women. The unmet need for birth spacing constituted 21.1% (n=81), whereas the unmet need for birth limiting was 8.1% (n=31). The age of the women, the number of living children, knowledge of modern contraceptive methods, and knowledge of FP service centres were found to be associated with women‘s unmet need for modern contraception. Lack of time and money, lack of knowledge about modern contraception, and fear of side effects were the major individual-level barriers. There were also culture-related factors such as the need for many children that hindered agro-pastoral women from using modern contraception. Moreover, the study disclosed that religious unacceptability and husband‘s and relatives‘ opposition were also among the mentioned barriers. The quality of FP service provision in terms of the competence and behaviour of health service providers, unavailability and inaccessibility of FP service, were also indicated as barriers. The findings informed the development of strategies to reduce agro-pastoral women‘s unmet needs for modern contraception in Eastern Ethiopia. The study further recommended that the health bureaus of the region, zone and district collaborate in ensuring that agro-pastoral women realise the significance of the provision of accessible, equitable, quality modern contraception. It is also essential to equip health facilities with qualified health service providers and necessary facilities. Religious leaders should be involved in disseminating vital, relevant and empowering FP information. / Health Studies / Ph. D. (Public Health)