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Discussion Paper Details

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Title: Women's Empowerment, the Gender Gap in Desired Fertility, and Fertility Outcomes in Developing Countries

Author(s): Matthias Doepke and Michèle Tertilt

Publication Date: January 2018

Keyword(s): desired fertility, marital bargaining and Women's Empowerment

Programme Area(s): Development Economics and Labour Economics

Abstract: We document evidence on preferences for childbearing in developing countries. Across countries, men usually desire larger families than women do. Within countries, we find wide dispersion in spouses' desired fertility: there are many couples whose ideal family size differs by five children or more. This disagreement between spouses suggests that the extent to which women are empowered should matter for fertility choices. We point to evidence at both the macro and micro levels that this is indeed the case. We conclude that taking account of household bargaining and women's empowerment in analyses of fertility is an important challenge for research.

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Bibliographic Reference

Doepke, M and Tertilt, M. 2018. 'Women's Empowerment, the Gender Gap in Desired Fertility, and Fertility Outcomes in Developing Countries'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=12593