High development and fertility: fertility at older reproductive ages and gender equality explain the positive link

Mikko Myrskylä, Hans-Peter Kohler and Francesco Billari
Additional contact information
Mikko Myrskylä: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Hans-Peter Kohler: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

No WP-2011-017, MPIDR Working Papers from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

Abstract: A fundamental reversal of the traditional fertility-development relationship has occurred in highly developed countries so that further socioeconomic development is no longer associated with decreasing fertility, but with increasing fertility. In this paper, we seek to shed light on the mechanisms underlying this reversal by analyzing data from 1975 to 2008 for over 100 countries. We find that the reversal exists from both the period and the cohort perspectives, and is mainly driven by increasing fertility at older reproductive ages. Further, the reversal is only partially explained by changes in the timing of fertility. However, the positive impact of development on fertility is conditional on gender equality: countries that rank high in development as measured by health, income, and education, but low in gender equality, continue to experience declining fertility. This finding demonstrates the importance of work-family balance in shaping fertility at older reproductive ages.

Keywords: World; developed areas; equal opportunity; fertility; gender; low fertility zones (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-hme
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2011-017.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: High development and fertility: fertility at older reproductive ages and gender equality explain the positive link (2011)
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:dem:wpaper:wp-2011-017

DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2011-017

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPIDR Working Papers from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Wilhelm (wilhelm@demogr.mpg.de).