Mother Africa's Exceptionalism? Income and Fertility Redux

Mark Gradstein () and Phoebe W. Ishak
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Mark Gradstein: Ben Gurion University

No 15265, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We revisit the effect of long run income growth on population fertility in some of the poorest countries in the world. Causal inference is enabled through proxying income windfalls by oil price shocks in oil rich versus oil poor provinces. Using various fertility measures as outcomes, we find that long run income growth significantly and robustly reduces fertility. Further analysis suggests that young women's fertility is particularly affected and that women's education; age of marriage, and the age of first birth, but not the use of contraceptives, are among the important mechanisms.

Keywords: economic development; population fertility; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 O15 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2022-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-gro
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