Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP12593
Authors: 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.
Keywords: women's empowerment; desired fertility; marital bargaining
JEL Codes: J12; J13; J16; O10
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| increased women's bargaining power (J16) | shift in realized fertility rate (J19) |
| better access to birth control (J13) | lower fertility rates (J13) |
| Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) (J16) | total fertility rate (TFR) (J13) |
| one-standard deviation decline in SIGI (C43) | decline in fertility (J13) |