A More General Approach to Fertility Determination in a Developing Country

The Importance of Biological Supply Considerations, Endogenous Tastes and Unperceived Jointness

Bibliographic Data

ID9727238
AuthorsJere R Behrman (0000-0001-7835-6283), Betsy Wolfe (0000-0002-8803-9019), Barbara L Wolfe
Year1984
Volume51
Issue203
Pages319
Publication date1984-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0427 • E-ISSN: 1468-0335
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2554549
OpenAlexW2038976551
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited6

The Chicago-Columbia economic model of fertility emphasizes that both the number (quantity) and the (unobservable) quality of children are arguments in the parental preference function. Focus is generally on demand determinants with fixed tastes. Biological supply considerations gernerally are deemphasized. The major alternative to the Chicago-Columbia model is the Pennsylvaina model which emphasizes that parental utility is conditional on norms regarding family size and own consumption. Empirical tests which shed some light on the relevance of the Chicago-Columbia versus the Pennsylvania models for understanding fertility determination in a developing country were conducted on a sample of Nicaraguan women aged 15-45 using a more general fertility model (EPW) which encompasses features of both models. The estimation of a linear approximation to the fertility determination relation resulting from a generalized model includes 3 sets of variables: 1) those included in standard Chicago-Columbia empirical estimates; 2) some related to the Pennsylvaina models emphasis on natural fertility (supply factors); and 3) some related to the latter models emphasis on endogenous norms (tastes). The Pennsylvania model with its emphasis on supply tastes and unperceived jointness adds to the understanding of the empirical completed-fertility experience in the Nicaraguan sample beyond that of the standard Chicago-Columbia model. The implications of this basic result are numerous and may be quite important in understanding fertility behavior in developing economies and in devising appropriate related policies. 4 examples are given: 1) fertility behavior may be more complicated than assumed in conventional Chicago-Columbia analyses. 2) Results suggest that it may be important to analyze fertility and to formulate policy within a larger framework which integrates fertility and health and nutrition concerns. 3) If tastes are important and endogenous as the results suggest they are interpretations of the impact of fertility changes on private welfare are much more ambiguous than often is realised. 4) Some conventional interpretations of the variables in the standard model may be misleading in understanding and in policy formulation. Standard Chicago-Columbia variables are womens schooling and household income. The full EPW Pennsylvania model correlates the supply variables (parasites therapeutically treatable medically preventable womens age age of 1st cohabitation months breastfed nutrition) the taste variables (religious or civil marriage religious services/month residence birth rate siblings parents present migration--currently or in childhood) and compares them to the Chicago-Columbia variables outcome on the Nicaraguan sample

Consumption (sociology) · Developing country · Econometrics · Economic growth · Economics · Empirical evidence · Fertility · Population · Sample (material) · Sociology · Unobservable · Demography · Economic Growth and Productivity · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics