Detecting Deliberate Fertility Control in Pre-transitional Populations: Evidence from six German villages, 1766–1863

Mise en évidence d’un contrôle volontaire des naissances dans des populations pré-transitionnelles: Le cas de 6 villages allemands, 1766–1863

Martin Dribe () and Francesco Scalone
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Martin Dribe: Lund University
Francesco Scalone: University of Sassari

European Journal of Population, 2010, vol. 26, issue 4, No 2, 434 pages

Abstract: Abstract This article deals with the possible existence of deliberate fertility control before the fertility transition. The timing of the fertility response to economic stress, as measured by fluctuations in grain prices, is used as a measure of deliberate, but non-parity specific, control. Birth histories from six German villages (1766–1863), including information on occupation of the husband, are used together with community-wide grain price series in a micro-level event-history analysis. The results show a negative fertility response to grain prices both in the year immediately following the price change, and with a 1-year lag. The response was also highly different between socioeconomic groups, with the most pronounced effects among the unskilled laborers. Moreover, the response in this group was very rapid, already present 3–6 months after the price change. As all involuntary fertility responses to economic hardship (e.g., malnutrition, spousal separation, and spontaneous abortion) come with a considerable time lag, the existence of such a rapid response among the lower social groups suggests that individual agency (deliberate control) was an important aspect of reproductive behavior also before the fertility transition.

Keywords: Deliberate fertility control; Natural fertility; Historical demography; Cox proportional hazards model; Economic stress; Contrôle délibéré des naissances; Fécondité naturelle; Démographie historique; Modèle de Cox; Pression économique (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10680-010-9208-8

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