Bargaining over Family Size: The Determinants of Fertility in Brazil

Understanding how households make fertility decisions is important to implementing effective policy to slow population growth. Most empirical studies of this decision are based on household models in which men and women are assumed to act as if they have the same preferences for the number of childr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Population research and policy review 2001-10, Vol.20 (5), p.423-440
Main Authors: Klawon, Emily, Tiefenthaler, Jill
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asset income
Bargaining
Bargaining power
Brazil
Children
Consumption
Couples
Decision Making
Demand curves
Demography
Education
Effects
Families & family life
Family
Family income
Family planning
Family Size
Female fertility
Fertility
Fertility rates
Gender relations
Household utilities
Households
Income
Income distribution
Labor supply
Men
Nonwage income
Pareto optimum
Policy studies
Population
Population Growth
Population Policy
Sex Differences
Size
Social conditions
Studies
Utility functions
Women
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Summary:Understanding how households make fertility decisions is important to implementing effective policy to slow population growth. Most empirical studies of this decision are based on household models in which men and women are assumed to act as if they have the same preferences for the number of children. However, if men and women have different preferences regarding fertility and are more likely to assert their own preferences as their bargaining power in the household increases, policies to lower fertility rates may be more effectively targeted toward one spouse or the other. In this paper, we test the relevance of the single preferences model by investigating whether men and women's nonwage incomes have the same effects on the number of children in the household. We find that while increases in both the man and woman's nonwage income lower the number of children in the household, an equivalent increase in the woman's income has a significantly stronger effect than the man's. In addition, we find that increases in women's nonwage transfer income have the strongest effects on the fertility decisions of women with low levels of education. The most important policy implication of our results is that policies aimed at increasing the incomes of the least-educated women will be the most effective in lowering fertility rates.
ISSN:0167-5923
1573-7829
DOI:10.1023/A:1013337201896