Fertility, Education and Development: Further Evidence from India

Jean Drèze and Mamta Murthi

STICERD - Development Economics Papers - From 2008 this series has been superseded by Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers from Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE

Abstract: There has been a significant decline in fertility in many parts of India since the early 1980s. This paper reexamines the determinants of fertility levels and fertility decline, using panel data on Indian districts for 1981 and 1991. We find that women's education is the most important factor explaining fertility differences across the country and over time. Low levels of child mortality and son preferences also contribute to lower fertility. By contrast, general indicators of modernization and development such as urbanisation, poverty reduction, and male literacy bear no significant association with fertility. En passant, we probe a subject of much confusion - the relation between fertility decline and gender bias.

Keywords: Fertility; demographic transition; female literacy; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000-01
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/de/dedps20.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Fertility, Education and Development: Further Evidence from India (2000)
Working Paper: Fertility, education and development: further evidence from India (2000)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:stidep:20

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in STICERD - Development Economics Papers - From 2008 this series has been superseded by Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers from Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().