Family structure, implicit contracts and demand for children: a consideration of South Nigerian data
Todaro, M.P.; Fapohunda, E.
Working Papers, Center for Policy Studies, Population Council, USA 136: 54
1987
Document Number: 361914
An important debate in the population and development literature concerns whether the structure of families independently and systematically affects household decision making processes and actual fertility differentials. A concurrent controversial issue is how to theoretically conceptualize family structure and define its evolving forms for empirical investigation. Using primary data from southern Nigeria, this paper examines, both theoretically and empirically, how three implicit Nigerian family contracts affect spousal reproductive goals and actual fertility behaviour. The West African family with its implicit contracts must evolve in subtle ways toward some of the characteristics of the theoretical nuclear family before a fertility transaction can become firmly established. Finally, it considers the efficacy of alternative population policy interventions derived from an elaborated transactions framework that explicitly recognizes the importance of family structural characteristics for reproductive behaviour.