Theoretical Framework

Individual-Level Links Between Education and Fertility Limitation

• Parent’s schooling

  • Educated women: gain new opportunities for status attainment, education = increased opportunity costs of childbearing for women, reduce their desire for children

  • Structural/demand theories

  • Ideational theories

    • 5 related mechanisms that link parents’ education to childbearing behaviour

      • Contraception

      • Western family values → small families

      • Weakened historical family values

      • Increased consumption aspirations

      • Increased contraceptive use

• Children’s schooling

  • Wealth flow theory - Caldwell

    • Children’s schooling: increased costs of children

  • Quantity-quality trade-off

    • Limiting quantity of children to increase the educational attainment (quality) of children

    • Mechanisms:

      • New expenses

      • Less influence from parents → children = less value to parents

      • Increased children independence

Community-Level Links Between Education and Fertility Limitation

• Proliferation of schools → mass education

• Proximity of schools = limits fertility

  • Neighbors’ childbearing behavior affects fertility

  • Presence of schools changes views of childhood

  • Associated with the spread of government services

Results

The Temporal Sequence of Community Change

• Schools spread before health or bus services

• Average time to the nearest school declined earlier than the average time to the nearest health/bus service

• Mass education: promotes fertility limitation

Childhood Community Characteristics

• Living near a school in childhood: limits childbearing in adulthood + increases use of contraception

• Living near a health post or a bus service

  • Increases use of contraception

Individual-Level Experiences With Education

• Husband’s measures of education have a positive influence on permanent contraceptive use

  • More education = more contraceptive use

Current Community Characteristics

• Women who live in neighborhoods with a high degree of social change

  • More likely to limit their childbearing because of nearby educational opportunities

Childbearing Experiences

• Women who send their children to school have more chances of adopting a permanent contraceptive method

  • This leads to fertility limitation