Social interactions, Ethnicity, Religion, and Fertility in Kenya

Sriya Iyer and Melvyn Weeks
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Melvyn Weeks: University of Cambridge, Faculty of Economics

JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, 2020, vol. 86, issue 3, 329-365

Abstract: Reproductive externalities are important for fertility behavior in Kenya. We identify from anthropology structural forms of social interaction operating across individuals belonging to different ethnic and religious groups on the number of children ever born. We use the 1998 Demographic and Health Survey, combined with primary meteorological data on Kenya, and GMM methods, to show that social interaction effects by ethnicity are important over and above an individual's characteristics such as their religion to explain variations in fertility. Our findings have implications for policy debates in Kenya and in other developing countries about ethnic, religious, and other differences in fertility behavior.

Keywords: Fertility; Generalized methodof moments; Kenya; Social interaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C51 R11 R15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-09-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Journal Article: Social interactions, ethnicity, religion, and fertility in Kenya (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctl:louvde:v:86:y:2020:i:3:p:329-365

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