On the impossibility of inferring cohort fertility measures from period fertility measures

Evert van Imhoff
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Evert van Imhoff: Nederlands Interdisciplinair Demografisch Instituut (NIDI)

Demographic Research, 2001, vol. 5, issue 2, 23-64

Abstract: A particularly important struggle faced by demographic analysts is, how to arrive at statements about family formation processes from a cohort perspective from data that are essentially collected on an annual basis. The present paper is concerned with this struggle, mostly restricted to the case of fertility. The central question investigated here is: given observed period data, what can we conclude about the completed family size of real women? I review several existing methods to infer cohort fertility from period fertility measures. The conclusion is that, for each method, its justifiability can be verified only empirically: by looking at cohort fertility directly. To illustrate how this can be done, the paper analyses fertility data from a cohort perspective for two countries, Italy and the Netherlands.

Keywords: fertility; demographic transition; Italy; Netherlands; cohort fertility; total fertility rate (TFR); tempo and quantum; period adjustment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dem:demres:v:5:y:2001:i:2

DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2001.5.2

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