Effects of structural adjustment on fertility
Montgomery, M.
Understanding the social effects of policy reform: 173-182
1993
Document Number: 243561
Endogenous household responses, such as changes in fertility rates, often occur as a response to exogenous changes in economic variables, which in turn occur during the process of structural reform. At issue is whether the new economic incentives that accompany adjustment in turn and which influence human capital investment in the health and schooling of children, also influence family size. The chapter considers a framework which would allow consideration of whether the severe economic contractions felt in some African cities encourage the postponement of childbearing activities and lower lifetime fertility; and whether structural adjustment may lead to an increase in the birth rate in African rural areas; as well as allow the investigation of the relationship between public investment and fertility. The analysis proposed is based on the development of a model with a series of regressors grouped under the following headings: individual and family characteristics; selected community characteristics; and infrastructure and service delivery with the dependent variable being cumulative fertility. Supplementary exercises are also suggested, similar in structure, but with recent contraceptive use and recent fertility as the dependent variables.