IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/ecdecc/doi10.1086-666950.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fertility Regulation in an Economic Crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher McKelvey
  • Duncan Thomas
  • Elizabeth Frankenberg

Abstract

Substantial international aid is spent reducing the cost of contraception in developing countries as part of a larger effort to reduce global fertility and increase investment per child worldwide. The importance for fertility behaviors of keeping contraceptive prices low, however, remains unclear. Targeting of subsidies and insufficient price variation have hindered prior attempts to estimate the effect of monetary and nonmonetary contraceptive costs on fertility behavior. Using longitudinal survey data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey, we exploit dramatic variation in prices and incomes that was induced by the economic crisis in the late 1990s to pin down the effect of contraceptive availability and costs as well as household resources on contraceptive use and method choice. The results are unambiguous: monetary costs of contraceptives and levels of family economic resources have a very small (and well-determined) impact on contraceptive use and choice of method.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher McKelvey & Duncan Thomas & Elizabeth Frankenberg, 2012. "Fertility Regulation in an Economic Crisis," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(1), pages 7-38.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/666950
    DOI: 10.1086/666950
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/666950
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/666950
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/666950?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric Jensen, 1996. "The fertility impact of alternative family planning distribution channels in Indonesia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 33(2), pages 153-165, May.
    2. Frankenberg, E. & Thomas, D. & Beegle, K., 1999. "The Real Costs of Indonesia's Economic Crisis: Preliminary Findings from the Indonesia Family Life Surveys," Papers 99-04, RAND - Labor and Population Program.
    3. Schultz, T Paul, 1973. "Explanation of Birth Rate Changes over Space and Time: A Study of Taiwan," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(2), pages 238-274, Part II, .
    4. Paul Gertler & John Molyneaux, 1994. "How economic development and family planning programs combined to reduce indonesian fertility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 31(1), pages 33-63, February.
    5. Shiffman, Jeremy, 2002. "The construction of community participation: village family planning groups and the Indonesian state," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(8), pages 1199-1214, April.
    6. John Akin & Jeffrey Rous, 1997. "Effect of provider characteristics on choice of contraceptive provider: A two-equation full-information maximum-likelihood estimation," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 34(4), pages 513-523, November.
    7. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Schultz, T Paul, 1985. "The Demand for and Supply of Births: Fertility and Its Life Cycle Consequences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(5), pages 992-1015, December.
    8. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1986. "Evaluating the Effects of Optimally Distributed Public Programs: ChildHealth and Family Planning Interventions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(3), pages 470-482, June.
    9. Gourieroux, Christian & Holly, Alberto & Monfort, Alain, 1982. "Likelihood Ratio Test, Wald Test, and Kuhn-Tucker Test in Linear Models with Inequality Constraints on the Regression Parameters," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 63-80, January.
    10. repec:ucp:bknber:9780226740867 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Pitt, Mark M & Rosenzweig, Mark R & Gibbons, Donna M, 1993. "The Determinants and Consequences of the Placement of Government Programs in Indonesia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 7(3), pages 319-348, September.
    12. Paul Gertler & Jack Molyneaux, 1994. "Erratum to: How Economic Development and Family Planning Programs Combined to Reduce Indonesian Fertility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 31(2), pages 1-1, May.
    13. Schultz, T Paul, 1969. "An Economic Model of Family Planning and Fertility," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(2), pages 153-180, March/Apr.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Torrisi, Orsola, 2024. "Violent instability and modern contraception: Evidence from Mali," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    2. Karra, Mahesh & Wilde, Joshua, 2023. "Economic Foundations of Contraceptive Transitions: Theories and a Review of the Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 15889, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Konstantinos Matakos & Dimitrios Minos & Ari Perdana & Elizabeth Radin, 2022. "“Dragon boating” alone? Community ties and systemic income shocks," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 55-81, January.
    4. J.M. Ian Salas, 2012. "Consequences of withdrawal : Free condoms and birth rates in the Philippines," UP School of Economics Discussion Papers 201220, University of the Philippines School of Economics.
    5. Athey, Susan & Bergstrom, Katy & Hadad, Vitor & Jamison, Julian C. & Ozler, Berk & Parisotto, Luca & Sama, Julius Dohbit, 2021. "Shared Decision-Making: Can Improved Counseling Increase Willingness to Pay for Modern Contraceptives?," Research Papers 3987, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    6. Steven F. Koch, 2017. "User Fee Abolition and the Demand for Public Health Care," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 85(2), pages 242-258, June.
    7. Sellers, Samuel & Gray, Clark, 2019. "Climate shocks constrain human fertility in Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 357-369.
    8. Brian C. Thiede & Sara Ronnkvist & Anna Armao & Katrina Burka, 2022. "Climate anomalies and birth rates in sub-Saharan Africa," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 1-20, March.
    9. Olukorede Abiona, 2017. "The Impact of Unanticipated Economic Shocks on the Demand for Contraceptives: Evidence from Uganda," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1696-1709, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giles, John & Satriawan, Elan, 2015. "Protecting child nutritional status in the aftermath of a financial crisis: Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 97-106.
    2. Schultz, T. Paul, 2008. "Population Policies, Fertility, Women's Human Capital, and Child Quality," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 52, pages 3249-3303, Elsevier.
    3. Grant Miller, 2005. "Contraception as Development? New Evidence from Family Planning in Colombia," CID Working Papers 9, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    4. Christopher J. Cronin & David K. Guilkey & Ilene S. Speizer, 2018. "The effects of health facility access and quality on family planning decisions in urban Senegal," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 576-591, March.
    5. World Bank, 2007. "Ethiopia - Capturing the Demographic Bonus in Ethiopia : Gender, Development, and Demographic Actions," World Bank Publications - Reports 7823, The World Bank Group.
    6. Uma Radhakrishnan, 2010. "A Dynamic Structural Model of Contraceptive Use and Employment Sector Choice for Women in Indonesia," Working Papers 10-28, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    7. Ahmad, Khalil & Ali, Amjad & Irfan Chani, Muhammad, 2014. "Does sector specific foreign aid matter for fertility? An empirical analysis form Pakistan," MPRA Paper 72851, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Hatton, Timothy J. & Sparrow, Robert & Suryadarma, Daniel & van der Eng, Pierre, 2018. "Fertility and the health of children in Indonesia," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 67-78.
    9. Sinha, Nistha, 2003. "Fertility, Child Work and Schooling Consequences of Family Planning Programs: Evidence from an Experiment in Rural Bangladesh," Center Discussion Papers 28457, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    10. Frempong, Raymond Boadi & Kitzmüller, Lucas & Stadelmann, David, 2021. "A micro-based approach to evaluate the effect of water supply on health in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    11. Portner, Claus C & Beegle, Kathleen & Christiaensen, Luc, 2011. "Family planning and fertility : estimating program effects using cross-sectional data," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5812, The World Bank.
    12. Nistha Sinha, 2003. "Fertility, Child Work and Schooling Consequences of Family Planning Programs: Evidence from an Experiment in Rural Bangladesh," Working Papers 867, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    13. Frankenberg, E. & Thomas, D., 2000. "Women's Health and Pregnancy Outcomes: Does Access to Services Make a Difference?," Papers 00-04, RAND - Labor and Population Program.
    14. Lucia Breierova & Esther Duflo, 2003. "The Impact of Education on Fertility and Child Mortality: Do Fathers Really Matter Less Than Mothers?," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 217, OECD Publishing.
    15. Ahmad, Khalil & Ali , Amjad & Chani, Muhammd Irfan, 2014. "Does Foreign Aid to Social Sector Matter for Fertility Reduction? An Empirical Analysis for Pakistan," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 37(04), pages 65-76, December.
    16. Rachel Connelly & Deborah DeGraff & Deborah Levison & Brian McCall, 2006. "Tackling The Endogeneity Of Fertility In The Study Of Women'S Employment In Developing Countries: Alternative Estimation Strategies Using Data From Urban Brazil," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(4), pages 561-597.
    17. Michael Grimm & Robert Sparrow & Luca Tasciotti, 2015. "Does Electrification Spur the Fertility Transition? Evidence From Indonesia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(5), pages 1773-1796, October.
    18. Angeles, Gustavo & Guilkey, David K & Mroz, Thomas A, 2005. "The Effects of Education and Family Planning Programs on Fertility in Indonesia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(1), pages 165-201, October.
    19. Grant Miller, 2005. "Contraception as Development? New Evidence from Family Planning in Colombia," NBER Working Papers 11704, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Ronald Rindfuss & David Guilkey & S. Morgan & Øystein Kravdal & Karen Guzzo, 2007. "Child care availability and first-birth timing in Norway," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(2), pages 345-372, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/666950. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/EDCC .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.