Topic
Fertility
About: Fertility is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 29988 publications have been published within this topic receiving 681106 citations.
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TL;DR: This paper examined the determinants of fertility in India in a multivariate framework using district-level panel data linking two censuses 1981 and 1991 and found that women education and child mortality were the most important factors explaining fertility differences across the country and over time.
Abstract: A large body of Indian and international evidence points to the role of increasing female education in lowering fertility. Questions have been raised however about the nature and interpretation of this evidence. Several studies have found little evidence of a positive link between womens education and "female autonomy" while other studies report no significant correlation between female education and fertility. This article attempts to address these issues by examining the determinants of fertility in India in a multivariate framework using district-level panel data linking two censuses 1981 and 1991. The panel aspect of the data permits controlling for district-specific effects that might otherwise produce a spurious correlation between fertility and various explanatory variables. Even after controlling for district effects womens education and child mortality emerge as the most important factors explaining fertility differences across the country and over time. Moreover low levels of son preference also contribute to lower fertility. By contrast general indicators of modernization and development such as urbanization poverty reduction and male literacy bear no significant association with fertility decline.
355 citations
TL;DR: By child age 9, the program reduced women's rates of subsequent births, increased the intervals between the births of first and second children, increasedThe stability of their relationships with partners, facilitated children's academic adjustment to elementary school, and seems to have reduced childhood mortality from preventable causes.
Abstract: OBJECTIVE. Our goal was to test the effect of prenatal and infancy home visits by nurses on mothers9 fertility and children9s functioning 7 years after the program ended at child age 2. METHODS. We conducted a randomized, controlled trial in a public system of obstetric and pediatric care. A total of 743 primarily black women RESULTS. Nurse-visited women had longer intervals between births of first and second children, fewer cumulative subsequent births per year, and longer relationships with current partners. From birth through child age 9, nurse-visited women used welfare and food stamps for fewer months. Nurse-visited children born to mothers with low psychological resources, compared with control-group counterparts, had better grade-point averages and achievement test scores in math and reading in grades 1 through 3. Nurse-visited children, as a trend, were less likely to die from birth through age 9, an effect accounted for by deaths that were attributable to potentially preventable causes. CONCLUSIONS. By child age 9, the program reduced women9s rates of subsequent births, increased the intervals between the births of first and second children, increased the stability of their relationships with partners, facilitated children9s academic adjustment to elementary school, and seems to have reduced childhood mortality from preventable causes.
355 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present estimates of a model of economic growth that highlights the positive effects of demographic change during 1960-95 and show how Ireland benefited from lower fertility in the form of higher labor supply per capita and Taiwan benefited through increased savings rates.
Abstract: Transitions from high mortality and fertility to low mortality and fertility can be beneficial to economies as large baby boom cohorts enter the workforce and save for retirement, while rising longevity has perhaps increased both the incentive to invest in education and to save for retirement. We present estimates of a model of economic growth that highlights the positive effects of demographic change during 1960-95. We also show how Ireland benefited from lower fertility in the form of higher labor supply per capita and how Taiwan benefited through increased savings rates. We emphasize, however, that the realization of the potential benefits associated with the demographic transition appears to be dependent on institutions and policies, requiring the productive employment of the potential workers and savings the transition generates. Economic projections based on an "accounting" approach that assumes constant age-specific behavior are likely to be seriously misleading.
354 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, fertility choices in Brazil, a country where soap operas (novelas) portray families that are much smaller than in reality, were studied to study the effects of television on individual behavior.
Abstract: This paper focuses on fertility choices in Brazil, a country where soap operas (novelas) portray families that are much smaller than in reality, to study the effects of television on individual behavior. Using Census data for the period 1970-1991, the paper finds that women living in areas covered by the Globo signal have significantly lower fertility. The effect is strongest for women of lower socioeconomic status and for women in the central and late phases of their fertility cycle. Finally, the paper provides evidence that novelas, rather than television in general, affected individual choices.
353 citations
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: In the post-transitional period, fertility has dropped below the replacement level in virtually every population that has moved through the demographic transition as mentioned in this paper. But fertility has not yet stabilized at or near the level of replacement.
Abstract: THE TIMING OF the onset of contemporary fertility transitions and the pace of change during their early phases have been central concerns of researchers and policymakers in recent decades. Demographers and social scientists have studied survey data with detailed information about reproductive behaviors and attitudes of individuals in many countries. This research has provided new insights into the determinants of reproductive behavior and has contributed to the development of increasingly refined and realistic theories of fertility change. Policymakers and program managers in the developing world have been concerned about the contribution of high fertility to rapid population growth and poor reproductive health, and they have focused on implementing effective programs-in practice, mostly family planning programs-to reduce high and unwanted fertility. Until recently, less attention had been given to determinants and consequences of fertility in post-transitional societies. Conventional demographic theories have little to say about the level at which fertility will stabilize at the end of the transition. However, it is usually assumed that population growth in the long run will be near zero, which implies that fertility will on average be close to the replacement level of about 2.1 births per woman (Demeny 1997; Caldwell 1982; Freedman and Berelson 1974). This assumption is, for example, incorporated in past population projections of the United Nations and the World Bank (medium variants). If fertility in contemporary post-transitional societies had indeed leveled off at or near the replacement level, there would have been limited interest in the subject because this would have been expected. However, fertility has dropped below the replacement level-sometimes by a substantial margin-in virtually every population that has moved through the demographic transition. If future fertility remains at these low levels, populations will decline in size and will age rapidly. These demographic developments in
350 citations