The Fertility Impacts of Development Programs
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Washington, DC: World Bank
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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.
Palabras clave
AFRICA GENDER POLICY, GENDER INNOVATION LAB, WOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT, WOMEN AND SOCIAL NORMS, GENDER EQUALITY, SDG 5