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Desired fertility and the impact of population policies

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  • Pritchett, Lant H.
  • DEC

Abstract

Ninety percent of the differences across countries in total fertility rates are accounted for solely by differences in women's reported desired fertility. Using desired fertility constructed from both retrospective and prospective questions, together with instrumental variables estimation, it is shown this strong result is not affected by either ex-post rationalization of births nor the dependence of desired fertility on contraceptive access or cost. Moreover, despite the obvious role of contraception as a proximate determinant of fertility, the additional effect of contraceptive availability or family planning on fertility is quantitatively small and explains very little cross country variation. These empirical results are consistent with theories in which fertility is determined by parent's choices about children within the social, educational, economic, and cultural environment that parents, and especially women, face. They contradict theories that assert a large causal role for expansion of contraception in the reduction of fertility.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 1273.

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Date of creation: 31 Mar 1994
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:1273

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Related research

Keywords: Reproductive Health; Gender and Social Development; Life Sciences&Biotechnology; Biodiversity; Poverty Reduction Strategies;

References

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  1. Rosenzweig, Mark R. & Paul Schultz, T., 1987. "Fertility and investments in human capital : Estimates of the consequence of imperfect fertility control in Malaysia," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-2), pages 163-184.
  2. Schultz, T. Paul, 1988. "Population programs: Measuring their impact on fertility and the personal distribution of their effects," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 113-139, April.
  3. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Schultz, T Paul, 1985. "The Demand for and Supply of Births: Fertility and Its Life Cycle Consequences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(5), pages 992-1015, December.
  4. Lawrence H. Summers, 1992. "Investing in All the People," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 367-404.
  5. Robert J. Barro & Jong-Wha Lee, 1993. "International Comparisons of Educational Attainment," NBER Working Papers 4349, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Thomas J. Espenshade & Charles A. Calhoun, 1986. "The dollars and cents of parenthood," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 5(4), pages 813-817.
  7. Deaton, Angus S & Muellbauer, John, 1986. "On Measuring Child Costs: With Applications to Poor Countries," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 720-44, August.
  8. Peter H. Lindert, 1980. "Child Costs and Economic Development," NBER Chapters, in: Population and Economic Change in Developing Countries, pages 5-80 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  9. Deborah DeGraff, 1991. "Increasing contraceptive use in Bangladesh: The role of demand and supply factors," Demography, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 65-81, February.
  10. Robert J. Barro & Jong-Wha Lee, 1993. "Losers and Winners in Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 4341, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  11. Kelley, Allen C, 1988. "Economic Consequences of Population Change in the Third World," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 26(4), pages 1685-1728, December.
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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. UN Population Predictions: Up To 15 Billion by 2100
    by Tim Worstall in Tim Worstall (Forbes) on 2011-10-23 12:13:54
  2. Jonathan Porritt asks
    by Tim Worstall in Tim Worstall on 2011-02-28 13:26:10
  3. The Royal Society's appallingly bad report on population and consumption
    by Tim Worstall in The Telegraph Economics on 2012-04-26 12:00:00
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