Fertility and Child-Rearing

2021 ◽  
pp. 197-222
Author(s):  
Camilla Toulmin
Keyword(s):  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Opportunity Cost ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Economic Determinants ◽  
Human Fertility ◽  
Religious Importance ◽  
Economic Understanding ◽  
Economic Assets

This chapter outlines the economic determinants of human fertility, and explores the demographic transition, and studies of child productivity. It offers an assessment of the costs of and returns from child production in Kala over the first 15 years of life, in terms of their costs and the contributions which they make to the family’s prosperity. Several aspects of child production are investigated, such as the opportunity cost of women’s time, children’s marriage and dowry costs, and the value of children’s labour. Risks to child-production include an understanding of survival rates for infants and children, sickness, and child-failure rates – as when a young man goes off on migration and does not return. The chapter concludes with a recognition of the limits to an economic understanding of high fertility, for example as shown by the political and religious importance of children, since children are not just economic assets but constitute “descendants”.

Determinants of Aggregate Fertility in Pakistan

1986 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-570
Author(s):  
Ghulam Yasin Soomro
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Natural Increase ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Fertility Behaviour ◽  
Human Fertility ◽  
Control Programmes ◽  
The Difference

Experiencing high fertility and declining mortality levels, the developing countries are today faced with the problem of relatively high rates of natural increase in their populations. This pace of growth in population, influenced by high fertility levels, impedes the overall development planning. As pointed out in a document prepared by the Planning Commission of Pakistan, 'A vicious circle is set in motion in which high fertility and socio-economic stagnation breed upon each other' [5]. In the developing countries, development programmes including birth control programmes are in operation. The sustained high fertility levels, therefore, call for more insights into the mechanisms operating in the society and influencing fertility. Studies of fertility behaviour are conducted at both micro and macro levels. The difference between micro and macro is a matter of emphasis rather than one of kind, and both approaches are concerned with each level of social aggregation. Macrolevel studies describe the level and pattern of change resulting from the ongoing socio-econornic development in the society as a whole and do not explain variations in fertility at the household level [12]. However, development programmes, which are implemented at aggregate levels defined by geographical boundaries, influence the population in terms of socio-economic status and fertility behaviour. There are many factors which affect human fertility individually or collectively. Attempts have been made to identify these factors, and conceptual frameworks have been developed to explain the causal hypotheses. In this context mention may be made of the demographic transition theory, which is often applied to study fertility behaviour.

scholarly journals Getting to Africa’s Demographic Dividend

2021 ◽  
pp. 71-96
Author(s):  
Jakkie Cilliers
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Demographic Transition ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Demographic Dividend ◽  
Fertility Rates ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractIn this chapter, Cilliers defines the demographic dividend and explains its relationship to economic growth, with a focus on the African continent. It first covers the fundamentals of the relationship between population and economics, then offers an in-depth discussion of two key concepts, the demographic transition and demographic dividend. The chapter demonstrates that sub-Saharan Africa’s high fertility rates are a drag on development rather than an advantage, as the region can only expect to enjoy a demographic dividend after mid-century. It then uses scenario analysis to demonstrate that, given the right policy conditions, Africa can accelerate population-driven economic growth by reducing its fertility rate through interventions in education, infrastructure, human capital and, most importantly, women’s empowerment.

scholarly journals Human population growth and the demographic transition

2009 ◽  
Vol 364 (1532) ◽  
pp. 2985-2990 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bongaarts
Keyword(s):  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Demographic Change ◽  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Human Population ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Demographic Transitions ◽  
The World ◽  
Demographic Processes ◽  
Older Populations ◽  
Developed World

The world and most regions and countries are experiencing unprecedentedly rapid demographic change. The most obvious example of this change is the huge expansion of human numbers: four billion have been added since 1950. Projections for the next half century expect a highly divergent world, with stagnation or potential decline in parts of the developed world and continued rapid growth in the least developed regions. Other demographic processes are also undergoing extraordinary change: women's fertility has dropped rapidly and life expectancy has risen to new highs. Past trends in fertility and mortality have led to very young populations in high fertility countries in the developing world and to increasingly older populations in the developed world. Contemporary societies are now at very different stages of their demographic transitions. This paper summarizes key trends in population size, fertility and mortality, and age structures during these transitions. The focus is on the century from 1950 to 2050, which covers the period of most rapid global demographic transformation.

scholarly journals Understanding variation in human fertility: what can we learn from evolutionary demography?

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1692) ◽  
pp. 20150144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Sear ◽  
David W. Lawson ◽  
Hillard Kaplan ◽  
Mary K. Shenk
Keyword(s):  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Evolutionary Demography ◽  
Human Fertility ◽  
Dramatic Decline ◽  
Fertility Variation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Causal Nature ◽  
Fitness Maximization

Decades of research on human fertility has presented a clear picture of how fertility varies, including its dramatic decline over the last two centuries in most parts of the world. Why fertility varies, both between and within populations, is not nearly so well understood. Fertility is a complex phenomenon, partly physiologically and partly behaviourally determined, thus an interdisciplinary approach is required to understand it. Evolutionary demographers have focused on human fertility since the 1980s. The first wave of evolutionary demographic research made major theoretical and empirical advances, investigating variation in fertility primarily in terms of fitness maximization. Research focused particularly on variation within high-fertility populations and small-scale subsistence societies and also yielded a number of hypotheses for why fitness maximization seems to break down as fertility declines during the demographic transition. A second wave of evolutionary demography research on fertility is now underway, paying much more attention to the cultural and psychological mechanisms underpinning fertility. It is also engaging with the complex, multi-causal nature of fertility variation, and with understanding fertility in complex modern and transitioning societies. Here, we summarize the history of evolutionary demographic work on human fertility, describe the current state of the field, and suggest future directions.

scholarly journals Population dynamics and economic development

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Andrea Caravaggio ◽  
Luca Gori ◽  
Mauro Sodini
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Continuous Time ◽  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Optimal Growth ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Income Per Capita ◽  
Time Optimal ◽  
Per Capita

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>This research develops a continuous-time optimal growth model that accounts for population dynamics resembling the historical pattern of the demographic transition. The Ramsey model then becomes able to generate multiple determinate or indeterminate stationary equilibria and explain the process of the transition from a state with high fertility and low income per capita to a state with low fertility and high income per capita. The article also investigates the emergence of damped or persistent cyclical dynamics.</p>

scholarly journals Urbanization, long-run growth, and the demographic transition

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-47
Author(s):  
Jonathan J. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Wage Gap ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Income Growth ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Advanced Economies ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Cross Country

Abstract Advanced economies undergo three transitions during their development: (1) transition from a rural to an urban economy, (2) transition from low-income growth to high-income growth, (3) transition from high fertility and mortality rates to low modern levels. The timings of these transitions are correlated in the historical development of most advanced economies. I consider a nonlinear model of endogenous long-run economic and demographic change, in which child quantity-quality substitution is driven by declining child mortality. Because the model captures the interactions between all three transitions, it is able to explain three additional empirical patterns: a declining urban-rural wage gap, a declining rural-urban family size ratio, and most surprisingly, that early urbanization slows development. This third prediction distinguishes the model from other theories of long-run growth, and I document evidence for it in cross-country data.

The Demographic Transition

1984 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ansley J. Coale
Keyword(s):  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Slow Growth ◽  
Reproductive Behaviour ◽  
Extensive Study ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Industrial State ◽  
Simple Link

Demographic transition is a set of changes in reproductive behaviour that are experienced as a society is transformed from a traditional pre-industrial state to a highly developed, modernized structure. The transformation is the substitution of slow growth achieved with low fertility and mortality for slow growth maintained with relatively high fertility and mortality rates. Contrary to early descriptions of the transition, fertility in pre-modem societies was well below the maximum that might be attained. However, it was kept at moderate levels by customs (such as late marriage or prolonged breast-feeding) not related to the number of children already born. Fertility has been reduced during the demographic transition by the adoption of contraception as a deliberate means of avoiding additional births. An extensive study of the transition in Europe shows the absence of a simple link of fertility with education, proportion urban, infant mortality and other aspects of development. It also suggests the importance of such cultural factors as common customs associated with a common language, and the strength of religious traditions. Sufficient modernization nevertheless seems always to bring the transition to low fertility and mortality.

scholarly journals Fertility, Agricultural Labor Supply, and Production: Instrumental Variable Evidence from Uganda

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 581-607 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjorn Van Campenhout
Keyword(s):  
Labor Supply ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Agricultural Labor ◽  
Sweet Potatoes ◽  
Land Preparation ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Human Fertility ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Lower Fertility

Human fertility can affect agricultural production through its effect on supply of agricultural labor. Using the fact that in traditional, patriarchal societies, sons are generally preferred to daughters, we isolate exogenous variation in the number of children born to a mother and relate it to the agricultural labor supply and production in Uganda, which has a dominant agricultural sector and high fertility. We find that fertility has a sizable negative effect on household labor allocation to subsistence agriculture. Households with lower fertility devote significantly more time to land preparation and weeding; larger households grow less matooke and sweet potatoes. We find no significant effect on agricultural productivity in terms of yield per land area.

scholarly journals Two centuries of demographic change in Canada

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Barry Edmonston
Keyword(s):  
Age Structure ◽  
Demographic Change ◽  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Age Distribution ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Vital Rates ◽  
Demographic Processes ◽  
Negative Population

One key aspect of the demographic transition—the shift from high mortality and high fertility to low mortality and low fertility is a major change in the population’s age distribution from a pyramid-shaped young age structure to a pillar-shaped old age structure. This paper discusses two demographic processes affected by changes in age structure. First, there are effects on vital rates, with important differences in the observed crude rates and the implied intrinsic vital rates. Second, changes in age structure influence population momentum. More recently, demographers have noted that older age distributions associated with fertility levels below replacement have negative population momentum. Although the demographic transition has been well-described for many countries, demographers have seldom analyzed intrinsic vital rates and population momentum over time, which are dynamic processes affected by changes in the population age structure and which, in turn, influence future changes in population growth and size. This paper uses new data and methods to analyze intrinsic vital rates and population momentum across two centuries of demographic change in Canada 

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