IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/afjecr/330369.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of Education on Fertility and Labour Supply: Evidence from Malawi

Author

Listed:
  • Nsanja, Lamulo

Abstract

Women play a crucial role in the development of the Malawian economy. Their ability to blend household demands with labour market activities has been a remarkable phenomenon, one that has attracted the attention of an emerging literature on gender dynamics. This paper, in an attempt to add to this growing literature, sought to model female labour force participation and fertility in Malawi with a focus on the role of education using demographically enriched household survey data from the 2015/16 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey. The study results showed that empowered women who are educated and engaged in the labour market will have less time for many children as the opportunity cost of staying at home and taking care of children becomes very high. In this regard, extending free education beyond primary school level to include secondary education could be an important measure that could help further reduce the fertility rate in Malawi. Policies to reduce fertility can also play direct and indirect roles in enhancing maternal and child mortality reductions. When women give birth to fewer children, it reduces their exposure to the risks of childbirth, particularly in rural areas where health and maternal care services are poor or non-existent.

Suggested Citation

  • Nsanja, Lamulo, 2022. "Effects of Education on Fertility and Labour Supply: Evidence from Malawi," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 10(4), September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:afjecr:330369
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.330369
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/330369/files/230163-Article%20Text-558932-1-10-20220822.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.330369?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Strauss, John & Thomas, Duncan, 1995. "Human resources: Empirical modeling of household and family decisions," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 1883-2023, Elsevier.
    2. Schultz, T Paul, 1993. "Mortality Decline in the Low-Income World: Causes and Consequences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 337-342, May.
    3. repec:aer:wpaper:150 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Michael Abbott & Orley Ashenfelter, 1976. "Labour Supply, Commodity Demand and the Allocation of Time," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 43(3), pages 389-411.
    5. Baah-Boateng, William & Frempong, Richard & Nketiah-Amponsah, Edward, 2013. "The effect of fertility and education on female labour force participation in Ghana," MPRA Paper 109703, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Ben-Porath, Yoram, 1973. "Labor-Force Participation Rates and the Supply of Labor," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 697-704, May-June.
    7. Ben-Porath, Yoram, 1973. "Economic Analysis of Fertility in Israel: Point and Counterpoint," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(2), pages 202-233, Part II, .
    8. David Lam & Suzanne Duryea, 1999. "Effects of Schooling on Fertility, Labor Supply, and Investments in Children, with Evidence from Brazil," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(1), pages 160-192.
    9. Vavrus, Frances & Larsen, Ulla, 2003. "Girls' Education and Fertility Transitions: An Analysis of Recent Trends in Tanzania and Uganda," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(4), pages 945-975, July.
    10. Willis, Robert J, 1973. "A New Approach to the Economic Theory of Fertility Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(2), pages 14-64, Part II, .
    11. McCabe, James L. & Rosenzweig, Mark R., 1976. "Female labor-force participation, occupational choice, and fertility in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 141-160, July.
    12. Øystein Kravdal, 2002. "Education and fertility in sub-Saharan africa: Individual and community effects," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 39(2), pages 233-250, May.
    13. Donatien Beguy, 2009. "The impact of female employment on fertility in Dakar (Senegal) and Lomé (Togo)," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 20(7), pages 97-128.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Veloso, Fernando A., 2003. "A Competitive Growth Model with Endogenous Fertility," Brazilian Review of Econometrics, Sociedade Brasileira de Econometria - SBE, vol. 23(1), May.
    2. David Lam, 2011. "How the World Survived the Population Bomb: Lessons From 50 Years of Extraordinary Demographic History," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(4), pages 1231-1262, November.
    3. Ina GANGULI & Ricardo HAUSMANN & Martina VIARENGO, 2014. "Closing the gender gap in education: What is the state of gaps in labour force participation for women, wives and mothers?," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 153(2), pages 173-207, June.
    4. Nicola Barban & Elisabetta De Cao & Marco Francesconi, 2021. "Gene-Environment Effects on Female Fertility," CESifo Working Paper Series 9337, CESifo.
    5. Tadashi Yamada & Tetsuji Yamada, 1984. "Part-time Employment of Married Women and Fertility in Urban Japan," NBER Working Papers 1474, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. W. Hicks, 1974. "Economic development and fertility change in Mexico, 1950–1970," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 11(3), pages 407-421, August.
    7. Ganguli, Ina & Hausmann, Ricardo & Viarengo, Martina, 2011. "Closing the Gender Gap in Education: Does It Foretell the Closing of the Employment, Marriage, and Motherhood Gaps?," Working Paper Series rwp11-021, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    8. Federico Ciliberto & Amalia R. Miller & Helena Skyt Nielsen & Marianne Simonsen, 2016. "Playing The Fertility Game At Work: An Equilibrium Model Of Peer Effects," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57(3), pages 827-856, August.
    9. Michael Grossman, 1976. "The Correlation between Health and Schooling," NBER Chapters, in: Household Production and Consumption, pages 147-224, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Donald Snyder, 1974. "Economic determinants of family size in West Africa," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 11(4), pages 613-627, November.
    11. Yoram Porath, 1975. "First-generation effects on second-generation fertility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 12(3), pages 397-405, August.
    12. Marc Audi & Amjad Ali, 2016. "A Causality and Co-integration Analysis of Some Selected Socio-Economic Determinants of Fertility: Empirics from Tunisia," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 5(1), pages 20-36, March.
    13. Duryea, Suzanne & Behrman, Jere R. & Székely, Miguel, 1999. "Decomposing Fertility Differences across World Regions and over Time: Is Improved Health More Important than Women's Schooling?," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1898, Inter-American Development Bank.
    14. Daniel Aaronson & Rajeev Dehejia & Andrew Jordan & Cristian Pop-Eleches & Cyrus Samii & Karl Schulze, 2021. "The Effect of Fertility on Mothers’ Labor Supply over the Last Two Centuries [Semiparametric instrumental variables estimation of treatment response models]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(633), pages 1-32.
    15. Robert T. Michael & Robert J. Willis, 1976. "Contraception and Fertility: Household Production under Uncertainty," NBER Chapters, in: Household Production and Consumption, pages 25-98, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. William Baah-Boateng & Kingsley Laar & Edward Nketiah-Amponsah, 2021. "Child health and maternal labour market engagement in Ghana," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 23(2), pages 283-301, December.
    17. Millimet, Daniel & Wang, Le, 2005. "Is the Quantity-Quality Trade-off Really a Trade-off for All?," Departmental Working Papers 0502, Southern Methodist University, Department of Economics.
    18. Aromolaran, Adebayo B., 2004. "Female Schooling, Non-Market Productivity, and Labor Market Participation in Nigeria," Center Discussion Papers 28451, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    19. Cortez, Maria Patricia A., 1999. "Nutrition and the cognitive ability of children: evidence from Egypt," ISU General Staff Papers 1999010108000013559, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    20. Frederik Wild & David Stadelmann, 2024. "Heterogeneous Effects of Women's Schooling on Fertility, Literacy and Work: Evidence from Burundi's Free Primary Education Policy," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 33(1), pages 67-91.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor and Human Capital;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:afjecr:330369. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajer/index .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.