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Women's Empowerment, the Gender Gap in Desired Fertility, and Fertility Outcomes in Developing Countries

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  • Matthias Doepke
  • Michèle Tertilt

Abstract

We document evidence on preferences for childbearing in developing countries. Across countries, men usually desire larger families than women do. Within countries, we find wide dispersion in spouses' desired fertility: there are many couples whose ideal family size differs by five children or more. This disagreement between spouses suggests that the extent to which women are empowered should matter for fertility choices. We point to evidence at both the macro and micro levels that this is indeed the case. We conclude that taking account of household bargaining and women's empowerment in analyses of fertility is an important challenge for research.

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  • Matthias Doepke & Michèle Tertilt, 2018. "Women's Empowerment, the Gender Gap in Desired Fertility, and Fertility Outcomes in Developing Countries," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 108, pages 358-362, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:apandp:v:108:y:2018:p:358-62
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20181085
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Matthias Doepke & Fabian Kindermann, 2019. "Bargaining over Babies: Theory, Evidence, and Policy Implications," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(9), pages 3264-3306, September.
    2. Matthias Doepke & Michèle Tertilt, 2009. "Women's Liberation: What's in It for Men?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 124(4), pages 1541-1591.
    3. Rasul, Imran, 2008. "Household bargaining over fertility: Theory and evidence from Malaysia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 215-241, June.
    4. Nava Ashraf & Erica Field & Jean Lee, 2014. "Household Bargaining and Excess Fertility: An Experimental Study in Zambia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(7), pages 2210-2237, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kumon, Yuzuru & Sakai, Kazuho, 2022. "Women's Wages and Empowerment : Pre-industrial Japan, 1600-1890," CEI Working Paper Series 2022-05, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    2. Sunha Myong & JungJae Park & Junjian Yi, 2021. "Social Norms and Fertility," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(5), pages 2429-2466.
    3. Sylvain Dessy & Francesca Marchetta & Roland Pongou & Luca Tiberti, 2019. "Fertility response to climate shocks," CERDI Working papers halshs-02053100, HAL.
    4. Laurens Cherchye & Pierre-André Chiappori & Bram De Rock & Charlotte Ringdal & Frederic Vermeulen, 2021. "Feed the children," IFS Working Papers W21/32, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    5. Sylvain Dessy & Francesca Marchetta, 2019. "Fertility after The Drought: Theory and Evidence from Madagascar," Post-Print halshs-02315657, HAL.
    6. Simplice A. Asongu & Omang O. Messono & Keyanfe T. J. Guttemberg, 2021. "Women political empowerment and vulnerability to climate change: evidence from developing countries," Working Papers 21/010, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    7. Kumon, Yuzuru & Sakai, Kazuho, 2022. "Women’s Wages and Empowerment: Pre-industrial Japan, 1600-1890," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 18/2022, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    8. Miranda, Alfonso & Trivedi, Pravin K., 2020. "Econometric Models of Fertility," IZA Discussion Papers 13357, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Simplice A. Asongu & Omang O. Messono & Keyanfe T. J. Guttemberg, 2022. "Women political empowerment and vulnerability to climate change: evidence from 169 countries," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 1-26, October.
    10. Canning, David & Mabeu, Marie Christelle & Pongou, Roland, 2020. "Colonial origins and fertility: can the market overcome history?," MPRA Paper 112496, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Nathalie Ferrière, 2022. "Filling the "decency gap"? Donors' reaction to the US policy on international family planning aid," AMSE Working Papers 2217, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France, revised Mar 2023.
    12. D’Exelle, Ben & Ringdal, Charlotte, 2022. "Women’s use of family planning services: An experiment on the husband’s involvement," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    13. Céline Zipfel, 2022. "The demand side of Africa's demographic transition: desired fertility, wealth, and jobs," STICERD - Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series 71, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    14. Jia Cao & Minghao Li, 2022. "Hyperbolic discounting in an intergenerational model with altruistic parents," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(3), pages 989-1005, July.
    15. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Clarke, Damian & Walther, Selma, 2022. "Women's Careers and Family Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 15639, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Michael Grimm & Isabel Günther & Kenneth Harttgen & Stephan Klasen, 2022. "Slow-downs of fertility decline: When should we call it a 'fertility stall'?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(26), pages 737-766.
    17. Victor Agadjanian & Lesia Nedoluzhko, 2022. "Group Normative Propensities, Societal Positioning, and Childbearing: Ethno-linguistic Variation in Completed and Desired Fertility in Transitional Central Asia," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(4), pages 1571-1596, August.
    18. Dessy, Sylvain & Marchetta, Francesca & Pongou, Roland & Tiberti, Luca, 2020. "Climate Shocks and Teenage Fertility," GLO Discussion Paper Series 490, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    19. Friedman,Jed & Gaddis,Isis & Kilic,Talip & Martuscelli,Antonio & Palacios-Lopez,Amparo & Zezza,Alberto, 2021. "The Distribution of Effort : Physical Activity, Gender Roles, and Bargaining Power in an Agrarian Setting," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9634, The World Bank.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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