CDE Working Paper No. 2001-10The Effects of Migration, Household Income, and Gender on Mexican Child Health

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support from the National Science Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In addition, we are grateful to El Colegio de San Luis, A.C., who assisted in the collection of these data. The Effects of Migration, Household Income, and Gender on Mexican Child Health Despite worldwide progress in the eradication of poor health outcomes, persistent inequalities remain. In most countries, the poor bear the burden of disease. This is certainly true in Mexico, where inequities in wealth, gender, and ethnicity have polarized health outcomes. For example, infant mortality has dramatically improved since the beginning of the 20th century in Mexico but notable variation by socioeconomic status remains. Poor rural populations have infant mortality rates that are much higher than the rate for the nation as a whole (53 vs. 30 deaths per thousand live births in 1990) (CONAPO 1995). Similar socioeconomic differences exist with respect to the reemergence of epidemic diseases once thought to be controlled or eradicated, such as dengue fever, malaria, and cholera (Frenk et al. 1989), and the poor also have higher rates of infectious disease, malnutrition, noncommunicable diseases, and injury (Bobadilla et al. 1993)