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Fertility, Household’s size and Poverty in Nepal

Author

Listed:
  • François Libois

    (CRED, University of Namur)

  • Vincent Somville

    (Chr. Michelsen Institute, Norway)

Abstract

Population control policies keep on attracting massive attention: having more children would directly contribute to household’s poverty.Using household level data from Nepal, we investigate the links between household’s fertility decisions and variations in their size and composition. We show that household size barely changes with additional births but household composition is affected. Couples with fewer children host, on average, more other relatives. This result implies that fertility of a household has an ambiguous impact on its per capita consumption which depends on the relative gains in lower consumption versus costs of a lower income. We use the gender of the first born child to instrument the total number of consecutive children and identify the causal relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • François Libois & Vincent Somville, 2014. "Fertility, Household’s size and Poverty in Nepal," Working Papers 1412, University of Namur, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:nam:wpaper:1412
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    Cited by:

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    2. Asadullah, M. Niaz & Mansoor, Nazia & Randazzo, Teresa & Wahhaj, Zaki, 2021. "Is son preference disappearing from Bangladesh?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    3. Fan Yang & Krishna P. Paudel, 2023. "Nutrition, multidimensional poverty and income: The case of Nepal," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(7), pages 1962-1984, October.
    4. Wu, Wenchao & Kanamori, Yuko & Zhang, Runsen & Zhou, Qian & Takahashi, Kiyoshi & Masui, Toshihiko, 2021. "Implications of declining household economies of scale on electricity consumption and sustainability in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    5. Klasen, Stephan & Villalobos, Carlos, 2020. "Diverging identification of the poor: A non-random process. Chile 1992–2017," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    6. ALIASUDDIN & Taufiq C. DAWOOD & Nanda RAHMI, 2020. "Financial Inclusion And Poverty Reduction In Aceh Province: Comparison Between Core Region And Periphery Region," Regional Science Inquiry, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, vol. 0(2), pages 209-216, June.
    7. Zhang, Yimeng & Wang, Feng & Zhang, Bing, 2023. "The impacts of household structure transitions on household carbon emissions in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    8. Hamad Dilawar & Muhammad Zahir Faridi, 2022. "Population and Poverty Alleviation in Pakistan: An Aggregated and Disaggregated Analysis," Journal of Policy Research (JPR), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 8(3), pages 151-165, September.
    9. Chiara Mussida & Dario Sciulli, 2023. "Childbirth and poverty in Europe: A dynamic bivariate approach," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(1), pages 34-59, March.
    10. Kaat Van Hoyweghen & Janne Bemelmans & Hendrik Feyaerts & Goedele Van den Broeck & Miet Maertens, 2023. "Small Family, Happy Family? Fertility Preferences and the Quantity–Quality Trade-Off in Sub-Saharan Africa," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(6), pages 1-35, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Nepal ; Household size ; Household composition ; Poverty ; Fertility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

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