The majority of the Malawi people is rural (85%) and lives primarily on subsistence farming (NSO 2001). More than 90% of households collect and use fuel wood as their main source of cooking energy (NEC 2001; NSO 2000). However, between 1990 and 2000, Malawi experienced an average annual deforestation rate of 2.4% that was significantly higher than both Africa's average deforestation rate of 0.78%, and the world's average deforestation rate of 0.22% (UN FAO 2001). Malawi is also reported as one of the countries that will experience water stress by 2025 (PRB 2002). The rapid depletion of natural resources can have significant consequences for the quality of people's lives. Since Malawian women and children are primarily responsible for rural transportation work including collection of fuel wood and water (Edmonds et al. 1995), environmental degradation is expected to affect them disproportionately. This study will investigate the effects of environmental degradation on women's and children's time allocation decisions and the implications on children's school performance and health. The importance of relationships between population, the environment, and poverty has been acknowledged at both international and regional levels since the 1970's (United Nations 1997). However, there is a serious dearth of empirical studies on the nature of such relationships (United Nations 1997). The lack of studies has been cited as one of the reasons frustrating policy makers in their attempt to adopt sustainable development efforts (Arizpe et al. 1994). Some recent studies in this area have looked at effects of environmental degradation on women's fertility (Filmer and Pritchett 1996; Aggarwal et al. 2001); women's time allocation decisions (Cooke 2000); farm productivity (Cooke 1998). Earlier work by the authors showed that environmental degradation was associated with lower school enrollment and high domestic child labor hours, especially for girls (Nankhuni and Findeis 2002). This analysis extends that research to investigate the impact of environmental degradation on school performance. Attempts to look at impact on child health were done by Aggarwal et al. (2001) in South Africa but no significant impact was found. This study will also contribute to the research on effects of environmental degradation on children's health. Methodology Data Data from an Integrated Household Survey of 10,698 households conducted in Malawi in 1997-98 by the Malawi National Statistics Office are used. The data contain information on demographic and socio-economic characteristics of individuals and households, including child levels of education and health. The data also include time allocation information on domestic activities that include time spent on fuel wood and water collection. Information on each household's access to different water sources and whether the household relies on purchasing rather than collecting fuel wood as their main source of cooking energy is also available. Supplementing these data are estimates of fuel wood availability (GOM 1987) and information on access and quality of schools and health facilities at the district level (Benson 2002). Theoretical framework Freeman (1993) proposes that the basis for measuring the economic value of changes in resource environmental systems is the effects on human welfare. Therefore, the starting point for analyzing the impacts of environmental degradation is utility theory. The household production-utility model based on Becker (1965, 1993) and as adapted to farming households by Singh et al. (1976) will be the theoretical approach used in this paper. In this model, households derive utility from consumption of household farm-produced goods and from having children. They also derive positive utility from children's quality normally reflected in the children's health and education. The household's utility is maximized subject to budget, farm and household technology, and time constraints. Assuming that an interior solution to the household's maximization problem exists, reduced-form demand equations for children's health and education can be derived. These demands will be functions of shadow wages, prices, individual and household socio-economic and demographic characteristics, and the state of the environment. As the environment degrades, more hours of work are spent on fuel wood and water collection. This results in increased price of education thereby decreasing demand for education, as children may be needed for domestic work. Similarly, if women in more deforested areas cannot spend enough time on farming, cooking, and childcare this will act as an increase in cost of children's health resulting in the children's poor health (Kumar and Hotchkiss 1988). Estimation strategy The effect of environmental degradation on children's quality will be estimated by adding environmental quality variables in school performance and child health models. The school performance indicators are children's attendance of senior primary school and being in a certain class at the appropriate age for that class. The child health variables are anthropometric measures of weight, height, and weight for height. Possible endogeneity of child schooling, child health, domestic child labor, and fertility decisions will be tested and corrected for, where appropriate. It is expected that environmental degradation will negatively affect children welfare.

环境退化对马拉维妇女和儿童时间分配决定的影响:对儿童福利的影响。大多数马拉维人是农村人(85%)，主要以自给农业为生(NSO 2001年)。超过90%的家庭收集和使用柴火作为主要的烹饪能源来源(NEC 2001年;NSO 2000)。但在1990年至2000年期间，马拉维的年均森林砍伐率为2.4%，明显高于非洲的年均森林砍伐率0.78%，也高于世界平均森林砍伐率0.22%(联合国粮农组织2001年)。马拉维也被报告为到2025年将面临水压力的国家之一(PRB 2002)。自然资源的迅速枯竭会对人们的生活质量产生重大影响。由于马拉维妇女和儿童主要负责农村运输工作，包括收集燃料、木材和水(Edmonds等人，1995年)，预计环境退化将对她们造成不成比例的影响。本研究将调查环境退化对妇女和儿童时间分配决策的影响，以及对儿童在校表现和健康的影响。自1970年代(联合国1997年)以来，国际和区域各级都承认人口、环境和贫穷之间关系的重要性。但是，关于这种关系的性质的经验研究严重缺乏(联合国1997年)。缺乏研究被认为是使决策者在尝试采用可持续发展努力时受挫的原因之一(Arizpe等人，1994年)。这方面最近的一些研究探讨了环境退化对妇女生育能力的影响(Filmer和Pritchett, 1996年;Aggarwal等，2001);妇女的时间分配决策(Cooke 2000);农业生产力(Cooke, 1998)。作者早期的研究表明，环境退化与入学率低和家庭童工工作时间高有关，尤其是对女孩而言(Nankhuni和Findeis, 2002年)。这一分析扩展了研究，以调查环境退化对学校表现的影响。Aggarwal等人(2001)在南非尝试观察对儿童健康的影响，但未发现显著影响。这项研究还将有助于研究环境退化对儿童健康的影响。方法数据采用马拉维国家统计办公室1997-98年对马拉维10,698个家庭进行的综合家庭调查的数据。这些数据包含有关个人和家庭的人口和社会经济特征的信息，包括儿童教育和健康水平。数据还包括关于家庭活动的时间分配信息，包括用于燃料、木材和收集水的时间。此外，还提供了关于每个家庭获得不同水源的信息，以及家庭是否依靠购买而不是收集燃料木材作为其主要烹饪能源来源。补充这些数据的是对燃料木材供应情况的估计(GOM 1987年)和关于区一级学校和保健设施的获得和质量的信息(Benson 2002年)。理论框架Freeman(1993)提出衡量资源环境系统变化的经济价值的基础是对人类福利的影响。因此，分析环境退化影响的出发点是效用理论。基于Becker(1965, 1993)和Singh等人(1976)适用于农户的家庭生产-实用模型将是本文使用的理论方法。在这个模型中，家庭从家庭农场生产的商品的消费和生育子女中获得效用。它们还从通常反映在儿童健康上的儿童素质中获得积极的效用