Economists have long researched the affects that growth in the population size or the increase in the Total Fertility Rate (TFR), have had on the investment on human capital. At the family level, however, it is an analysis of how the number or siblings within a household could potentially impact the academic performance of a child with regards to their educational accomplishments. The effect may be a direct result of competition for the same limited resources amongst children living off the same income; this is of course assuming that all children living within that household are dependent, at least to some extent, on the resources provided in the household.
The following studies have served to reinforce the notion that household resources are finite, (i.e. households are faced with a budget constraint) and that an increase in the number of people living within a household would limit the amount of resources provided to each person, specifically children. However, the data from different countries show that there are other factors, besides family size, that serve as determinants in parental investment decisions, in specific, in societies where the money flow goes from children to parents and when the value placed on a child is influenced by his/her ability to obtain wealth. According to studies made in third world countries, gender, household structure, the literacy among parents, traditional roles, and birth order are but a few of the many factors that accompanies investment and potentially influences a parent's decision regarding whether to finance a child's education in developing countries. Therefore, to respond to the question, Does large family size reduce investment in children?, I would refer to the results obtained from data collected in Indonesia, India and Sub-Saharan Africa in specific Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, with respect to the quality-quantity tradeoff.
In Kinshasa, the household, this consists of the parents, their children
and other children that they foster in their house, along with various characteristics
of the household influences parent's investment in child education. The
most integral aspect in the Kinshasan household is the economic well-being.
(Shapiro & Tambashe, 2001) Like in any other country the decision of
schooling comes with a cost, regardless of the level of education. As there
is an increase in the amount of school-aged children within a family, assuming
that the level of economic well-being remains constant or undergoes no significant
changes, the cost of schooling for each child produces a tighter constraint
on the parent budget. Due to this tighter constraint and their responsibility
in household decision making, parents must resort to selecting which children
would go through formal schooling as well as when they would begin.
In Congolese societies, returns to education might be greater for males
than for females; therefore, parents would most likely place priority on
the educating male children rather than the female children. This can possibly
explain the higher percentages of enrollment and educational attainment
by male compared to females, as the household economic well-being increased.
(Shapiro & Tambashe, 2001) Yet, this was inconsistent in high levels
of economic well-being where the data showed that there was a decline in
the amount of gender differences. Oddly enough, however, according to the
data of youth aged 10-14, even when the households were headed by females,
girls still had a significantly lower educational attainment. (Shapiro &
Tambashe, 2001) Despite the significance of gender in sub-Saharan African
societies, the structure and composition of households equally determines
"the time allocation of children among schooling, work at home, and
work in the market." (Shapiro & Tambashe, 2001) Urban Sub-Saharan
families tend to raise children of the extended family to increase, for
the most part, the opportunities those children have of getting an education.
However, like in nearly all households, parents, when faced with a limited
amount of resources, they would prefer to provide for their own children
before providing for the child of another, which is proved by the lower
levels of educational attainment by children who were fostered. On the other
hand, when it comes to child care provision Congolese families depend on
the help of both their children and fostered children and the findings actually
reveal that there is a negative correlation between the number of children
ages 0-5 and the school enrollment of children ages 6-14 and educational
attainment by children between the ages of 10-14. Therefore, the more young
children there are within a household the more the presence of their older
children will be needed in the household while the parents are off to work.
As mentioned above, households which are growing in numbers go through what
Paris and Willis called resource dilution, where "large family size
will tend to lower educational attainment for all children." (Shapiro,
362) However, developing countries demonstrate a non-universal resource
dilution, which simply means that instead of diminishing the educational
attainment by all children only those that are born early would experience
less educational attainment since it is normally the first-born child responsible
of furnishing more wealth and caring for the younger children while the
late-born children are the one's cared for and therefore enjoy of higher
levels of education due to more resources available, which is similar to
what we see in India.
The study in India focused on the idea of fertility with regard to education,
incorporating the notion that parents makes a quality-quantity tradeoff.
Although "parents were more likely to invest on late-born children
because the role of the first-born children is to "continue to send
and bring or bring resources back to the family," (Shapiro & Tambashe,
2001) According to this theory, parents are aware of their limited resources
and the two part cost of schooling, indirect and direct, therefore in order
to provide their children with a better education they must decide to have
fewer children but in countries which normally have high birth rate to counter
their high death rates this is not always the case. In fact, the levels
of fertility in these countries continue to be significantly higher than
that of other countries; however, in India the rate at which women give
birth (TFR) has been on a steady declined for the past couple of decades.
This can be attributed to the decrease in illiteracy of the female population
of India, in specific 49 percent of the lower levels of TFR is a result
of the decline in the illiteracy rate, which, in turn, has changed the education-fertility
curve in most of India's states into a positive concavity which means that
India is going through a fertility transition because with higher levels
of educated women there is more female contraceptives awareness. Moreover,
the higher levels of literacy among females indicate that more female mothers
or head of households are educated and the data from this study gives evidence
that literacy among India parents increases the level of educational attainment
by their children but because of the traditional male preferences in Indian
families, or the "unwantedness" of females, provides evidence
that family sizes seem to have a stronger effect on the education of daughter
than of sons and of first-borns rather than late-born.
On the other hand, the approach taken to study the Indonesian families was
different because instead of examining the effect of an additional child
or the growth of family size on that child's education, the focus was on
how the number of children affected illness and the cure of illnesses. According
to the analysis, the number of children was not significantly affected by
the number of siblings in the family but rather by whether the child was
"wanted" or "unwanted" by the parent. (Jensen, 2002)
The study showed that the probability of obtaining diarrhea or fever/cough
was increased as a result of the "unwantedness" of the child.
The other factor in determine how easily a child contracted these illnesses
was the conditions under which the child was living, whether they lived
in a place where they had access to flush toilets, or lived in areas where
it was less likely of getting ill. They demonstrated that health was as
significant of an indicator of a child's well being as was their education.
This study like the others kept in maintained that the amount of resources
that the parents have are finite and in families especially those in large
families children actually compete to obtain the resources. The study shows
that in fact in an Indonesian family children are not significantly competing
for these resources because what actually determines the availability of
these resources to the children is whether or not they are wanted in the
family. The Results showed that in fact those children that live in poorer
environments and are of uneducated parent are at a higher risk of contracting
a disease and of those children living in poorer neighborhoods those that
are unwanted are less likely to obtain cure for their illnesses.
Jensen, Eric R. and Dennis A. Ahlburg, (2002) Family Size; Unwantedness, and Child Health and Health Care Utilization in Indonesia", in Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, 2002, pp. 43-59.
Shapiro, David; Tambashe, B. Oleko (2001), "Gender, Poverty, Family
Structure, and Investments in Children's Education in Kinshasa, Congo",
Economics of Education Review v20, n4 (August 2001): 359-375.
Bhat, P. N. Mari (2002), "Returning a Favor: Reciprocity between Female
Education and Fertility in India", World Development v30, n10
(October 2002): 1791-1803.
Kelley, Allen C. (1996), "The Consequences of Rapid Population Growth
on Human Resource Development: The Case of Education", in The Impact
of Population Growth on Well-Being in Developing Countries, Dennis A.
Ahlburg, Allen C. Kelley and Karen Oppenheim Mason (editors), Springer Verlag,
New York, 1996, pp. 67-138..
Arlene Peguero
Prof. Horlacher
Economics
Does Family Size Reduce Investment in Children? Spring Semester 2007
Economists have long researched the affects that growth in the population
size or the increase in the Total Fertility Rate (TFR), have had on the
investment on human capital. At the family level, however, it is an analysis
of how the number or siblings within a household could potentially impact
the academic performance of a child with regards to their educational accomplishments.
The effect may be a direct result of competition for the same limited resources
amongst children living off the same income; this is of course assuming
that all children living within that household are dependent, at least to
some extent, on the resources provided in the household. The following studies
have served to reinforce the notion that household resources are finite,
(i.e. households are faced with a budget constraint) and that an increase
in the number of people living within a household would limit the amount
of resources provided to each person, specifically children. However, the
data from different countries show that there are other factors, besides
family size, that serve as determinants in parental investment decisions,
in specific, in societies where the money flow goes from children to parents
and when the value placed on a child is influenced by his/her ability to
obtain wealth. According to studies made in third world countries, gender,
household structure, the literacy among parents, traditional roles, and
birth order are but a few of the many factors that accompanies investment
and potentially influences a parent's decision regarding whether to finance
a child's education in developing countries. Therefore, to respond to the
question, Does large family size reduce investment in children?, I would
refer to the results obtained from data collected in Indonesia, India and
Sub-Saharan Africa in specific Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic
of Congo, with respect to the quality-quantity tradeoff.
In Kinshasa, the household, this consists of the parents, their children
and other children that they foster in their house, along with various characteristics
of the household influences parent's investment in child education. The
most integral aspect in the Kinshasan household is the economic well-being.
(Shapiro & Tambashe, 2001) Like in any other country the decision of
schooling comes with a cost, regardless of the level of education. As there
is an increase in the amount of school-aged children within a family, assuming
that the level of economic well-being remains constant or undergoes no significant
changes, the cost of schooling for each child produces a tighter constraint
on the parent budget. Due to this tighter constraint and their responsibility
in household decision making, parents must resort to selecting which children
would go through formal schooling as well as when they would begin.
In Congolese societies, returns to education might be greater for males
than for females; therefore, parents would most likely place priority on
the educating male children rather than the female children. This can possibly
explain the higher percentages of enrollment and educational attainment
by male compared to females, as the household economic well-being increased.
(Shapiro & Tambashe, 2001) Yet, this was inconsistent in high levels
of economic well-being where the data showed that there was a decline in
the amount of gender differences. Oddly enough, however, according to the
data of youth aged 10-14, even when the households were headed by females,
girls still had a significantly lower educational attainment. (Shapiro &
Tambashe, 2001) Despite the significance of gender in sub-Saharan African
societies, the structure and composition of households equally determines
"the time allocation of children among schooling, work at home, and
work in the market." (Shapiro & Tambashe, 2001) Urban Sub-Saharan
families tend to raise children of the extended family to increase, for
the most part, the opportunities those children have of getting an education.
However, like in nearly all households, parents, when faced with a limited
amount of resources, they would prefer to provide for their own children
before providing for the child of another, which is proved by the lower
levels of educational attainment by children who were fostered. On the other
hand, when it comes to child care provision Congolese families depend on
the help of both their children and fostered children and the findings actually
reveal that there is a negative correlation between the number of children
ages 0-5 and the school enrollment of children ages 6-14 and educational
attainment by children between the ages of 10-14. Therefore, the more young
children there are within a household the more the presence of their older
children will be needed in the household while the parents are off to work.
As mentioned above, households which are growing in numbers go through what
Paris and Willis called resource dilution, where "large family size
will tend to lower educational attainment for all children." (Shapiro,
362) However, developing countries demonstrate a non-universal resource
dilution, which simply means that instead of diminishing the educational
attainment by all children only those that are born early would experience
less educational attainment since it is normally the first-born child responsible
of furnishing more wealth and caring for the younger children while the
late-born children are the one's cared for and therefore enjoy of higher
levels of education due to more resources available, which is similar to
what we see in India.
The study in India focused on the idea of fertility with regard to education,
incorporating the notion that parents makes a quality-quantity tradeoff.
Although "parents were more likely to invest on late-born children
because the role of the first-born children is to "continue to send
and bring or bring resources back to the family," (Shapiro & Tambashe,
2001) According to this theory, parents are aware of their limited resources
and the two part cost of schooling, indirect and direct, therefore in order
to provide their children with a better education they must decide to have
fewer children but in countries which normally have high birth rate to counter
their high death rates this is not always the case. In fact, the levels
of fertility in these countries continue to be significantly higher than
that of other countries; however, in India the rate at which women give
birth (TFR) has been on a steady declined for the past couple of decades.
This can be attributed to the decrease in illiteracy of the female population
of India, in specific 49 percent of the lower levels of TFR is a result
of the decline in the illiteracy rate, which, in turn, has changed the education-fertility
curve in most of India's states into a positive concavity which means that
India is going through a fertility transition because with higher levels
of educated women there is more female contraceptives awareness. Moreover,
the higher levels of literacy among females indicate that more female mothers
or head of households are educated and the data from this study gives evidence
that literacy among India parents increases the level of educational attainment
by their children but because of the traditional male preferences in Indian
families, or the "unwantedness" of females, provides evidence
that family sizes seem to have a stronger effect on the education of daughter
than of sons and of first-borns rather than late-born.
On the other hand, the approach taken to study the Indonesian families was
different because instead of examining the effect of an additional child
or the growth of family size on that child's education, the focus was on
how the number of children affected illness and the cure of illnesses. According
to the analysis, the number of children was not significantly affected by
the number of siblings in the family but rather by whether the child was
"wanted" or "unwanted" by the parent. (Jensen, 2002)
The study showed that the probability of obtaining diarrhea or fever/cough
was increased as a result of the "unwantedness" of the child.
The other factor in determine how easily a child contracted these illnesses
was the conditions under which the child was living, whether they lived
in a place where they had access to flush toilets, or lived in areas where
it was less likely of getting ill. They demonstrated that health was as
significant of an indicator of a child's well being as was their education.
This study like the others kept in maintained that the amount of resources
that the parents have are finite and in families especially those in large
families children actually compete to obtain the resources. The study shows
that in fact in an Indonesian family children are not significantly competing
for these resources because what actually determines the availability of
these resources to the children is whether or not they are wanted in the
family. The Results showed that in fact those children that live in poorer
environments and are of uneducated parent are at a higher risk of contracting
a disease and of those children living in poorer neighborhoods those that
are unwanted are less likely to obtain cure for their illnesses.
References
Jensen, Eric R. and Dennis A. Ahlburg, (2002) Family Size; Unwantedness,
and Child Health and Health Care Utilization in Indonesia", in Bulletin
of Indonesian Economic Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, 2002, pp. 43-59.
Shapiro, David; Tambashe, B. Oleko (2001), "Gender, Poverty, Family
Structure, and Investments in Children's Education in Kinshasa, Congo",
Economics of Education Review v20, n4 (August 2001): 359-375.
Bhat, P. N. Mari (2002), "Returning a Favor: Reciprocity between Female
Education and Fertility in India", World Development v30, n10 (October
2002): 1791-1803.
Kelley, Allen C. (1996), "The Consequences of Rapid Population Growth
on Human Resource Development: The Case of Education", in The Impact
of Population Growth on Well-Being in Developing Countries, Dennis A. Ahlburg,
Allen C. Kelley and Karen Oppenheim Mason (editors), Springer Verlag, New
York, 1996, pp. 67-138..
Arlene Peguero
Prof. Horlacher
Economics
Does Family Size Reduce Investment in Children? Spring Semester 2007
Economists have long researched the affects that growth in the population
size or the increase in the Total Fertility Rate (TFR), have had on the
investment on human capital. At the family level, however, it is an analysis
of how the number or siblings within a household could potentially impact
the academic performance of a child with regards to their educational accomplishments.
The effect may be a direct result of competition for the same limited resources
amongst children living off the same income; this is of course assuming
that all children living within that household are dependent, at least to
some extent, on the resources provided in the household. The following studies
have served to reinforce the notion that household resources are finite,
(i.e. households are faced with a budget constraint) and that an increase
in the number of people living within a household would limit the amount
of resources provided to each person, specifically children. However, the
data from different countries show that there are other factors, besides
family size, that serve as determinants in parental investment decisions,
in specific, in societies where the money flow goes from children to parents
and when the value placed on a child is influenced by his/her ability to
obtain wealth. According to studies made in third world countries, gender,
household structure, the literacy among parents, traditional roles, and
birth order are but a few of the many factors that accompanies investment
and potentially influences a parent's decision regarding whether to finance
a child's education in developing countries. Therefore, to respond to the
question, Does large family size reduce investment in children?, I would
refer to the results obtained from data collected in Indonesia, India and
Sub-Saharan Africa in specific Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic
of Congo, with respect to the quality-quantity tradeoff.
In Kinshasa, the household, this consists of the parents, their children
and other children that they foster in their house, along with various characteristics
of the household influences parent's investment in child education. The
most integral aspect in the Kinshasan household is the economic well-being.
(Shapiro & Tambashe, 2001) Like in any other country the decision of
schooling comes with a cost, regardless of the level of education. As there
is an increase in the amount of school-aged children within a family, assuming
that the level of economic well-being remains constant or undergoes no significant
changes, the cost of schooling for each child produces a tighter constraint
on the parent budget. Due to this tighter constraint and their responsibility
in household decision making, parents must resort to selecting which children
would go through formal schooling as well as when they would begin.
In Congolese societies, returns to education might be greater for males
than for females; therefore, parents would most likely place priority on
the educating male children rather than the female children. This can possibly
explain the higher percentages of enrollment and educational attainment
by male compared to females, as the household economic well-being increased.
(Shapiro & Tambashe, 2001) Yet, this was inconsistent in high levels
of economic well-being where the data showed that there was a decline in
the amount of gender differences. Oddly enough, however, according to the
data of youth aged 10-14, even when the households were headed by females,
girls still had a significantly lower educational attainment. (Shapiro &
Tambashe, 2001) Despite the significance of gender in sub-Saharan African
societies, the structure and composition of households equally determines
"the time allocation of children among schooling, work at home, and
work in the market." (Shapiro & Tambashe, 2001) Urban Sub-Saharan
families tend to raise children of the extended family to increase, for
the most part, the opportunities those children have of getting an education.
However, like in nearly all households, parents, when faced with a limited
amount of resources, they would prefer to provide for their own children
before providing for the child of another, which is proved by the lower
levels of educational attainment by children who were fostered. On the other
hand, when it comes to child care provision Congolese families depend on
the help of both their children and fostered children and the findings actually
reveal that there is a negative correlation between the number of children
ages 0-5 and the school enrollment of children ages 6-14 and educational
attainment by children between the ages of 10-14. Therefore, the more young
children there are within a household the more the presence of their older
children will be needed in the household while the parents are off to work.
As mentioned above, households which are growing in numbers go through what
Paris and Willis called resource dilution, where "large family size
will tend to lower educational attainment for all children." (Shapiro,
362) However, developing countries demonstrate a non-universal resource
dilution, which simply means that instead of diminishing the educational
attainment by all children only those that are born early would experience
less educational attainment since it is normally the first-born child responsible
of furnishing more wealth and caring for the younger children while the
late-born children are the one's cared for and therefore enjoy of higher
levels of education due to more resources available, which is similar to
what we see in India.
The study in India focused on the idea of fertility with regard to education,
incorporating the notion that parents makes a quality-quantity tradeoff.
Although "parents were more likely to invest on late-born children
because the role of the first-born children is to "continue to send
and bring or bring resources back to the family," (Shapiro & Tambashe,
2001) According to this theory, parents are aware of their limited resources
and the two part cost of schooling, indirect and direct, therefore in order
to provide their children with a better education they must decide to have
fewer children but in countries which normally have high birth rate to counter
their high death rates this is not always the case. In fact, the levels
of fertility in these countries continue to be significantly higher than
that of other countries; however, in India the rate at which women give
birth (TFR) has been on a steady declined for the past couple of decades.
This can be attributed to the decrease in illiteracy of the female population
of India, in specific 49 percent of the lower levels of TFR is a result
of the decline in the illiteracy rate, which, in turn, has changed the education-fertility
curve in most of India's states into a positive concavity which means that
India is going through a fertility transition because with higher levels
of educated women there is more female contraceptives awareness. Moreover,
the higher levels of literacy among females indicate that more female mothers
or head of households are educated and the data from this study gives evidence
that literacy among India parents increases the level of educational attainment
by their children but because of the traditional male preferences in Indian
families, or the "unwantedness" of females, provides evidence
that family sizes seem to have a stronger effect on the education of daughter
than of sons and of first-borns rather than late-born.
On the other hand, the approach taken to study the Indonesian families was
different because instead of examining the effect of an additional child
or the growth of family size on that child's education, the focus was on
how the number of children affected illness and the cure of illnesses. According
to the analysis, the number of children was not significantly affected by
the number of siblings in the family but rather by whether the child was
"wanted" or "unwanted" by the parent. (Jensen, 2002)
The study showed that the probability of obtaining diarrhea or fever/cough
was increased as a result of the "unwantedness" of the child.
The other factor in determine how easily a child contracted these illnesses
was the conditions under which the child was living, whether they lived
in a place where they had access to flush toilets, or lived in areas where
it was less likely of getting ill. They demonstrated that health was as
significant of an indicator of a child's well being as was their education.
This study like the others kept in maintained that the amount of resources
that the parents have are finite and in families especially those in large
families children actually compete to obtain the resources. The study shows
that in fact in an Indonesian family children are not significantly competing
for these resources because what actually determines the availability of
these resources to the children is whether or not they are wanted in the
family. The Results showed that in fact those children that live in poorer
environments and are of uneducated parent are at a higher risk of contracting
a disease and of those children living in poorer neighborhoods those that
are unwanted are less likely to obtain cure for their illnesses.
References
Jensen, Eric R. and Dennis A. Ahlburg, (2002) Family Size; Unwantedness,
and Child Health and Health Care Utilization in Indonesia", in Bulletin
of Indonesian Economic Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, 2002, pp. 43-59.
Shapiro, David; Tambashe, B. Oleko (2001), "Gender, Poverty, Family
Structure, and Investments in Children's Education in Kinshasa, Congo",
Economics of Education Review v20, n4 (August 2001): 359-375.
Bhat, P. N. Mari (2002), "Returning a Favor: Reciprocity between Female
Education and Fertility in India", World Development v30, n10 (October
2002): 1791-1803.
Kelley, Allen C. (1996), "The Consequences of Rapid Population Growth
on Human Resource Development: The Case of Education", in The Impact
of Population Growth on Well-Being in Developing Countries, Dennis A. Ahlburg,
Allen C. Kelley and Karen Oppenheim Mason (editors), Springer Verlag, New
York, 1996, pp. 67-138..
Sarah Shaikh
Population Growth
Prof. David Horlacher
Discussion Paper #1
March 6, 2007
An Answer to the Question "Does the Education of Women Lower Fertility"
Are a woman's educational level and the fertility rate related? What
about becoming more educated reduces a woman's desire for children? Are
children undesirable once a woman can fill a void in her life with work
and information? What role does autonomy play in this relationship? Does
a man's education level have the same affects on fertility levels? This
paper analyzes the relationship between the education of women and fertility
levels. Though most researchers have found theoretical and empirical evidence
that in general shows that increased education among woman leads to a lower
fertility rate, this relationship is a non-linear function and, instead,
is highly influenced by other factors (Diamond, 23). This paper uses the
information found in the three essays, Why does Education Lead to Lower
Fertility? A Critical Review of Some of the Possibilities by Alaka Basu,
Fertility, Education, and Development: Evidence from India by Jean Drèze
and Mamta Murthi, and Ian Diamond's essay Female Education and Fertility:
Examining the Links, to examine and further understand this complex relationship.
This paper is divided into four sections. The first section will present
the general attitudes and opinions surrounding the relationship between
a woman's education and the fertility rate. The second section will look
at the institution of education and media and as well as the role that marriage
plays in the relationship between female education and fertility, specifically
helping in justifying the general claims. The third section looks at the
specifics of a study conducted in South Asia that provides empirical evidence
to the theoretical assumption of the relationship between a woman's education
and the fertility rate. The last section summarizes the paper.
General Information
Researchers have long been studying the possible causes for the decline
in the fertility rates of the developing world. Despite a plethora of conclusions,
most researchers have related this decline to the increase in education
for women in developing countries (Basu, 1779). Further they have related
this to increased status in the family and community this added gender equality
has aided in the reduction of the fertility rate (Basu, 1779). Therefore,
the general assumption is that increased education for women and gender
equality lead to a declination in the fertility rate. Yet, as stated earlier
this relationship is complex and affected by the various exceptions to this
pattern. The most common exception to this pattern is when increased education
levels among women have not affected the fertility rate. Though the relationship
is mostly negatively correlated, earlier studies have found exception which
show that at very high and very low levels of education among women the
relationship is positively correlated (Diamond, 23). These two indicators
ultimately lead to increased female autonomy within the community. A woman's
confidences and ability to take control of her life decisions can be attributed
to an increase in her educational status by providing a woman with the skill
sets to make a more educated and informed decisions and become strong in
the face of adversity, sexism, and community and familial opposition (Basu,
1779). Thus, gender equality represented by education is at the crux of
the education and fertility relationship. However, other mechanisms contribute
to this relationship.
Education, Marriage, and Media
In the essay entitled Why does Education Lead to Lower Fertility? A Critical
Review of Possibilities, Alaka Basu creates an introspective analysis of
factors other than increased gender equality that add to this correlation.
Basu suggests that in many developing countries education towards women
can exacerbate the problem of inequalities because the content taught to
women differs and is often inferior to the content taught to men. Further
the essay suggests that the schooling offered to women in these developing
areas is unrelated to a woman's ability to be a successful mother or family
planner; it instead teaches girls qualities such as discipline, self restraint,
and obedience of authority (Basu, 1780). Therefore, Basu proposes that it
is not the education, increased literacy aside, but the act of going to
school that has a negative impact on the fertility rate. The act of going
to school, getting out of the home, and interacting with peers as well as
the act of learning and not what is learned that affects a female's confidence.
This confidence is could be seen as translated into the development of the
educated woman as both a mother and a family planner and ultimately leads
to the decrease of the fertility rate (Basu, 1780).
Additionally, Basu uses the institution of marriage to isolate the issue
of the declining fertility rates being based on an increase in a woman's
education level. This relates back to the issue of a woman's autonomy. Studies
have shown that woman who are more educated have more autonomy and freedom
to make decisions on a personal, domestic, or external level. Thus, Basu
states, that this increase in autonomy leads to greater reproductive autonomy
(Basu, 1781). Previous studies have established that educated women marry
equally if not more educated men whereas educated men will either marry
equally educated or not-educated women. Through these conclusions, studies
have been conducted which show that men's education levels have little to
no effect on fertility rates.
Further, Basu examines how an increase in education affects a declining
fertility rate. This conclusion stems from a three part trajectory. It is
a fact that recurring contact with media is a strong forecaster of the populations'
attitudes towards fertility, contraceptive use, and family size. Also, a
woman's exposure to media is increased with an increase in education (Basu,
1785). Therefore, with increased education a woman has more access to mass
media and will in turn learn more about family planning and contraceptive
use which will negatively affect the fertility rate.
The Relationship between Fertility and Education in India
In Fertility, Education, and Development: Evidence from India, Jean Drèze
and Mamta Murthi look at the quantitatively relationship between increased
education for females and fertility in India. In the 1970's India took an
authoritative approach to family planning which failed and ultimately cost
Indira Gandhi her position as prime minister. However, since then many Indian
states have been able to successfully incorporate non-authoritarian approaches
to family planning and controlled population development (Drèze,
34). Due to ambiguity in the direction of causation between educated woman
and fertility rates, Drèze dissects the fertility rate to look specifically
at the weight increased female education has on family size, the connection
between family size and planned births, and the means of achieving the planned
number of births (Drèze, 35). Drèze's initial theoretical
conclusions coincide with those presented by Diamond and Basu. First, increased
female education results in increase autonomy of the woman in determining
the family size. Second, in order to reach the desired family size mothers
can plan on fewer births, due to the relationship between increased female
educations with decreased child mortality. Last, in agreement with Basu,
Drèze increased female education results in increased access to information
regarding contraceptives and autonomy in making the decisions regarding
family planning (Drèze, 35). Also, increased education will lead
to increased labor force participation and thus decrease the fertility rate.
In this particular study the nature of fertility in India is analyzed using
cross-sectional time series data. The manipulation of the data points to
women's educational levels as one of the crucial factors affecting fertility
rate differences across different districts and regions during a ten year
period beginning in 1981 and ending in 1991 (Drèze, 35). They create
a statistical analysis which looks how the dependent variable, district-level
total fertility rate (TFR), is affected by independent variables such as
female literacy, male literacy, poverty, urbanization, scheduled castes,
scheduled tribes, religion, son preference, as well as a few dummy variables.
Specifically, the independent variable for female literacy refers to the
percentage of women older than fifteen that are literate and ultimately
constitutes female education (Drèze, 40). The results of the regression
show that, in India, female literacy or education has a negative impact
on the Total Fertility Rate and the coefficient for the variable is highly
significant (Drèze, 46). Therefore, through an empirical analysis
of India, Drèze shows that female education has a significant, negative
effect on the fertility rate. Further, this study corrects any possible
sources of error by creating a robust regression which establishes a direct
link between female education and fertility (Drèze, 54).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the literature discussed in this paper establishes a correlation
between a woman's educational level and the fertility rate. Basu, Drèze,
and Diamond all provide sociological, empirical, and theoretical evidence
that this relationship actually exists. This paper was divided into three
parts which analyzed the complexity and external results of this relationship.
The first section provided general information about the relationship between
a female's education level and the fertility rate. The second section discusses
the theoretical and sociological reasons for the relationship between a
female's education and the fertility rate. The third section analyzes an
empirical study conducted in India which regresses female education on the
total fertility rate.
References and Works Cited
Diamond, Ian, (1999), "Female Education and Fertility: Examining
the Links", in Critical Perspectives on Schooling and Fertility in
the Developing World, Committee on Population, National Research Council,
Washington D.C., National Academy Press.
Dreze, Jean; Murthi, Mamta (2001), "Fertility, Education, and Development:
Evidence from India", Population and Development Review v27, n1 (March
2001): 33-63.
Basu, Alaka Malwade, (2002), "Why Does Education Lead to Lower Fertility?
A Critical Review of Some of the Possibilities", World Development
v30, n10 (October 2002): 1779-1790.