Okonek and Wakefield Author Article on a Parametric Survival Model for Child Mortality
Posted: 11/6/2025 (CSDE Research)

CSDE External Affiliate Taylor Okonek (Macalester College), CSDE Affiliate and Executive Committee Member Jon Wakefield (Statistics and Biostatistics), and co-author Katie Wilson just published an article in Demographic Research, titled “A parametric survival model for child mortality using complex survey data.” Modern demographic methods for estimating a full mortality schedule for children have been developed for countries with good vital registration and reliable census data but perform poorly in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Okonek, Wilson, and Wakefield propose a parametric, survey-weighted (pseudo-likelihood) approach and apply it to survey data from four countries in sub-Saharan Africa.