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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. Rasul, Imran, 2008. "Household bargaining over fertility: Theory and evidence from Malaysia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 215-241, June.
    3. Matthias Doepke & Michèle Tertilt, 2009. "Women's Liberation: What's in It for Men?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(4), pages 1541-1591.
    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. Bethencourt, Carlos & Santos-Torres, Daniel, 2023. "Gender-role identity in adolescence and women fertility in adulthood," MPRA Paper 116321, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. 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.
    3. Jed Friedman & Isis Gaddis & Talip Kilic & Antonio Martuscelli & Amparo Palacios-Lopez & Alberto Zezza, 2023. "The Distribution of Effort: Physical Activity, Gender Roles, and Bargaining Power in an Agrarian Setting," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 37(1), pages 93-111.
    4. 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.
    5. 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).
    6. Sylvain Dessy & Francesca Marchetta & Roland Pongou & Luca Tiberti, 2019. "Fertility after The Drought: Theory and Evidence from Madagascar," Cahiers de recherche 1901, Centre de recherche sur les risques, les enjeux économiques, et les politiques publiques.
    7. Dessy, Sylvain & Marchetta, Francesca & Pongou, Roland & Tiberti, Luca, 2020. "Climate Shocks and Teenage Fertility," GLO Discussion Paper Series 490, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Gradstein, Mark & Ishak, Phoebe W., 2024. "Mother Africa: The long run effects of income shocks on fertility," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 838-849.
    9. 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.
    10. Michael Grimm & Kenneth Harttgen & Isabel Günther & 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.
    11. 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.
    12. Paul Romer & Roberto Samaniego & Remi Jedwab & Asif M. Islam, 2025. "Scars of pandemics from lost schooling and experience: aggregate implications and gender differences through the lens of COVID-19," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 1-47, March.
    13. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Clarke, Damian & Walther, Selma, 2022. "Women's Careers and Family Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 15639, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Sylvain Eloi Dessy & Francesca Marchetta & Roland Pongou & Luca Tiberti, 2019. "Fertility Response to Climate Shocks," Working Papers PMMA 2019-06, PEP-PMMA.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. Ashira Menashe-Oren & David A. Sánchez-Páez, 2023. "Male Fertility and Internal Migration in Rural and Urban Sub-Saharan Africa," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-40, December.
    18. 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.
    19. D’Exelle, Ben & Lépine, Aurélia & Bakyono, Richard & Tapsoba, Ludovic D.G., 2023. "Fertility and polygyny: Experimental evidence from Burkina Faso," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    20. Nathalie Ferrière, 2024. "Filling the “Decency Gap”? Donors’ Reaction to US Policy on International Family Planning Aid," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 38(1), pages 185-207.
    21. Miranda, Alfonso & Trivedi, Pravin K., 2020. "Econometric Models of Fertility," GLO Discussion Paper Series 574, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    22. 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).
    23. 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.
    24. 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.

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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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