Development and Fertility

1
Development and Fertility

• How are they related
• among countries?
• within countries?

2
WOMEN, development, and fertility

• When women are of higher status, is there more
  rapid fertility decline?
• And does it depend on the overall level of
  development?

3
Fertility, development, and women

• Does fertility decline lead to improved status of
  women?
• And does change depend on the level of
  development?

4
Development and Fertility

• Does the level of development matter for
  fertility decline?
• Do those countries that are better off
  economically have lower fertility?
• Do those countries with better education of women
  have lower fertility?

5
Development and Fertility

• Does the level of development matter for
  fertility decline?
• The answer is unequivocal YES
• Using individual measures such as per capita
  income, average education, health care, life
  expectancy, in each case, the higher the level of
  development, the lower the fertility

6
Economics and Fertility

• The Easterlin framework of supply and demand for
  children is often used to explain why countries
  that are better off have fewer children
• People demand fewer children because they want to
  use their money for alternative purposes and/or
  they want fewer children because they invest more
  in each of them

7
Development and Fertility Change

• Does fertility change more rapidly when there is
  a higher level of development in the country?
• We can ask this question both across countries
  and within a country
• This question was asked by Mauldin and Ross

8
They asked about program effort

• Policy and stage-setting activities
• Service and service-related activities
• Record keeping and evaluation
• Availability and accessibility of
  fertility-control supplies and services

9
Percentage TFR decline1975-90
10
They also examined social setting

• Adult literacy
• Primary and secondary school enrollment
• Life expectancy
• Infant mortality rate
• male labor force not in agriculture
• GNP per capita
• urban population

11
Percentage TFR decline1975-90
12
Womens education and fertility

• There is a strong relationship across countries
• As female literacy goes up, the total fertility
  rate goes down
• As female enrollment goes up, the total fertility
  rate goes down

13
Womens education and other indicators

• As womens education goes up, age at marriage
  goes up
• As womens education goes up, infant mortality
  goes down

14
Within country relationships

• The inverse relationship between education and
  fertility takes different forms within countries
• In some, there is a continuous decline in
  fertility with years of education
• In others, a reversed U or reversed J-shaped
  relationship is found -- women with some
  education have higher fertility than those with
  none or very little

15
Threshhold effects

• In some countries, there is what has been
  described as a 7 relationship
• In these cases, there seems to be no change in
  fertility until a certain level of education --
  and then a declining relationship is seen

16
Fertility increasing with education

• In a very few countries, a positive relationship
  between education and fertility is seen
• This type of relationship was what was predicted
  by early economic theory, which was based on the
  notion that those who were better off would buy
  more children

17
The education pattern varies with level of
development

• The more developed the country, the more likely
  is there to be a strong inverse relationship
  between education and fertility
• The less the gender difference in education, the
  more likely is there to be a strong inverse
  relationship between education and fertility
• In the best off countries, differences by
  education diminish

18
Does education increase womens autonomy?

• We first need to define autonomy
• Jejeebhoy breaks autonomy into
• Knowledge autonomy
• Decision-making autonomy
• Physical autonomy - mobility
• Emotional autonomy - nuclear vs extended family
  loyalties
• Economic and social autonomy

19
Better educated women have more autonomy

• This relationship is found in many settings
• But there is a relationship to overall context
  and level of development

20
Evidence of greater autonomy

• Closer ties to husband and children - loyalty
  shifts from extended family
• Greater participation in decision making within
  the home
• Greater physical autonomy
• Greater self-reliance

21
But is education the only determinant of autonomy
or empowerment?

• Other factors to consider include age, marital
  status, economic situation