World Population Growth and Fertility Patterns, 1960-2000. A Simple Model Explaining the Evolution of World's Fertility During the Second Half of the 20th Century

Enriqueta Camps-Cura

No 695, Working Papers from Barcelona School of Economics

Abstract: In this paper we attempt to describe the general reasons behind the world population explosion in the 20th century. The size of the population at the end of the century in question, deemed excessive by some, was a consequence of a dramatic improvement in life expectancies, attributable, in turn, to scientific innovation, the circulation of information and economic growth. Nevertheless, fertility is a variable that plays a crucial role in differences in demographic growth. We identify infant mortality, female education levels and racial identity as important exogenous variables affecting fertility. It is estimated that in poor countries one additional year' of primary schooling for women leads to 0.614 child less per couple on average (worldwide). While it may be possible to identify a global tendency towards convergence in demographic trends, particular attention should be paid to the case of Africa, not only due to its different demographic patterns, but also because much of the continent's population has yet to experience improvement in quality of life generally enjoyed across the rest of the planet.

Keywords: infant mortality; race; Convergence; demographic transition; female education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 J13 J15 J16 N3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-dem and nep-his
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Related works:
Working Paper: World population growth and fertility patterns, 1960-2000. A simple model explaining the evolution of world's fertility during the second half of the 20th Century (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bge:wpaper:695

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