This paper examines how women’s fertility responds to increases in their earnings and household wealth, using six experiments conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa. Contrary to predictions that an increase in female earnings raises the opportunity cost of childbearing and that this will lower fertility, the findings show that an increase in the profits of female business-owners in Ethiopia and Togo results in them having more children. The findings also show a positive fertility response to increases in the value of household assets induced by land formalization programs in Benin and Ghana. These results are driven by women who are in most need of sons for support in old age or in the event of widowhood. The findings suggest that women’s lack of long-term economic security is an important driver of fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Authors
Donald, Aletheia, Goldstein, Markuz, Koroknay-Palicz, Tricia, Sage, Mathilde
- Associated content
- Link to data and reproducibility package
- Citation
- “ Donald, Aletheia ; Goldstein, Markuz ; Koroknay-Palicz, Tricia ; Sage, Mathilde . 2024 . The Fertility Impacts of Development Programs . Policy Research Working Paper; 10848 . © Washington, DC: World Bank . http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41890 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO . ”
- Collection(s)
- Policy Research Working Papers
- DOI
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-10848
- Identifier externaldocumentum
- 34362962
- Identifier internaldocumentum
- 34362962
- Pages
- 55
- Published in
- United States of America
- RelationisPartofseries
- Policy Research Working Paper; 10848
- Report
- WPS10848
- Rights
- CC BY 3.0 IGO
- Rights Holder
- World Bank
- Rights URI
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/
- UNIT
- Gender Impact Evaluation (AFEGI)
- URI
- https://hdl.handle.net/10986/41890
- date disclosure
- 2024-07-17
- region geographical
- Sub-Saharan Africa
Files
Table of Contents
- Introduction 4
- Contextual Framework and Literature Review 7
- Context 7
- Old age and land tenure security in Sub-Saharan Africa 7
- The vulnerability of widows 7
- Fertility and desired fertility 8
- Conceptual Framework 9
- Income and fertility 9
- Fertility and property rights 11
- Data and Methodology 12
- Datasets and Experiment Designs 13
- Interventions for Entrepreneurs 13
- Land Titling Interventions 14
- Sample Characteristics 15
- Empirical Strategy 16
- Main Results 19
- Mechanisms 22
- Increase in Income 23
- Sons as a pension asset 23
- Relaxed budget constraint enables investment 24
- Sons as old age support for the poor 26
- Increase in the Value of Assets 27
- Investing in Assets in a Patrilineal Setting 29
- Investing in Assets in a Matrilineal Setting 30
- Investing Directly in Assets 31
- Alternative Mechanisms 32
- Conclusion and Discussion 33
- Appendix 44
