Infant Mortality in the World-System
Professor Scott Frey was one of key lecturers at the 6th LCSR International Workshop. His report was devoted to one of the most discussed topics: “Infant Mortality in the World-System: The Cross-National Evidence.”
Professor Scott Frey ( Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Social Justice at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA) was one of key lecturers at the 6th LCSR International Workshop. His report was devoted to one of the most discussed topics: “Infant Mortality in the World-System: The Cross-National Evidence”.
From XX-XXI century, the plight of children improved dramatically in many countries occupying different positions in the world-system (World Bank, 2015). Infant mortality rates decreased by 73% from 1970-2013. Nevertheless, the UN’s 2015 Millennium Development Goals have not been met (UN 2014, World Bank 2015). Prof. Frey argues that the cross-national variation in infant mortality remains significant: Monaco had a rate of 1.81 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, while Afghanistan had a rate of 187.5 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.
The aim of his report is to explain why infant mortality rates vary across nation-states. To address this question, Prof. Frey uses a dataset comprising 144 developed and developing nation-states.
According to Prof. Frey, women empowerment is especially important for infant mortality reduction. In particular, female education contributes to more sophisticated child and family care. Previous empirical research confirms the negative correlation between the level of female education and infant mortality rates. Future research should incorporate women’s land, property, and loan rights as variables.
Prof. Frey provides alternative theories to explain infant mortality. Modernization theorists argue that economic development reduces infant mortality through health care, nutrition and well-being improvements. Furthermore, Prof. Frey shows thatDependency, World-System and Developmental State Theories cannot explain infant mortality.
The finding that infant mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa is significantly higher than in the rest of the world is hardly surprising. However, Prof. Frey suggests that future research should explore the reasons for it. To do so, it is necessary to identify the factors contributing to African infant mortality rates. Future research should explore the role of environmental conditions such as access to clean water and basic sanitation, the legacy of colonialism and the slave trade, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic as factors for infant mortality.