Economic Utility of Children and Fertility in Rural India

Abstract

In this study the relationship between fertility and the economic utility of children is investigated by using survey data gathered in 1975–6 from an agricultural village in Western India. Fertility measures included both attitudinal variables as well as number of children and an index of contraceptive behaviour; economic utility was gauged through several measures concerning labour contributions of young children, transfers from older, non-resident children and contributions towards old-age security. The analysis indicates that no obvious association exists between fertility and economic utility. Specifically, variation in the labour contributed by children had no appreciable effect upon villagers' attitudes towards fertility, nor was it connected to actual family size. Old-age security, whether measured by attitudes of younger men or by facts relating to old men, was similarly unrelated to fertility. It is argued that the respondents have become much more aware of the costs of children (especially education) than the benefits, as measured in this study, and hence that the relationship between economic utility of children and fertility has lost the importance it may once have had.

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