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Does female employment reduce fertility rates? Evidence from the Senegalese horticultural export sector

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  • Van den Broeck, Goedele
  • Maertens, Miet

Abstract

The recent horticultural export boom in Senegal has created new off-farm wage employment opportunities for the rural population, especially for women. We hypothesise that female wage employment may lower fertility rates through an income effect, an empowerment effect and a substitution effect, and address this question empirically using household survey data and two different regression techniques (a Difference-in-Differences estimator and an Instrumental Variable approach). We find that besides education, female employment has a significant negative effect on fertility rates. Reducing fertility rates is considered as a prerequisite for reaching the MDGs, and our finding implies that the horticultural export boom and associated employment may indirectly contribute to this.

Suggested Citation

  • Van den Broeck, Goedele & Maertens, Miet, 2014. "Does female employment reduce fertility rates? Evidence from the Senegalese horticultural export sector," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182715, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:eaae14:182715
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.182715
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    Cited by:

    1. Mbu Daniel Tambi, 2018. "Maternal Participation in Agricultural Production and Population Growth in Cameroon," RAIS Journal for Social Sciences, Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 2(1), pages 1-21, May.

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