IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erg/wpaper/1219.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Determinants of Fertility and Population Policies in MENA Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Mehmet Serkan Tosun

    (University of Nevada)

  • Jingjing Yang

Abstract

In this study, we examine the relationship between fertility and population policies and other potential determinants. We use panel data from the United Nations World Population Policies database, Integrated Labor Market Panel Survey (ILMPS) database and the World Development Indicators. In the first part of our analysis, we find significant negative association between the government policy to reduce fertility, and the change in the total fertility rate. On the other hand, there is no significant and robust relationship between the government policy to raise fertility, government’s policy to support family planning, and the change in the total fertility rate. In addition we find evidence of spatial autocorrelation in the total fertility rate, and spatial spillovers from government’s policy on fertility. In the second part of our analysis, we examine the determinants of fertility using micro data on Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia. We find positive and significant association between fertility and age, household size, marital status and a dummy variable that takes the value 1 if the first child is female and 0 otherwise. At the same time, we find negative and significant association between fertility and urban areas, education level, labor force participation and wealth.

Suggested Citation

  • Mehmet Serkan Tosun & Jingjing Yang, 2018. "Determinants of Fertility and Population Policies in MENA Countries," Working Papers 1219, Economic Research Forum, revised 12 Sep 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:1219
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/12191.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://bit.ly/2x60lsy
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pritchett, Lant H. & DEC, 1994. "Desired fertility and the impact of population policies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1273, The World Bank.
    2. Jungho Kim & Alexia Prskawetz, 2010. "External Shocks, Household Consumption and Fertility in Indonesia," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 29(4), pages 503-526, August.
    3. James Feyrer & Bruce Sacerdote & Ariel Dora Stern, 2008. "Will the Stork Return to Europe and Japan? Understanding Fertility within Developed Nations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(3), pages 3-22, Summer.
    4. Easterly, William & Levine, Ross, 1998. "Troubles with the Neighbours: Africa's Problem, Africa's Opportunity," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 7(1), pages 120-142, March.
    5. Olivier Parent & Abdallah Zouache, 2012. "Geography versus Institutions: New Perspectives on the Growth of Africa and the Middle East," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 168(3), pages 488-518, September.
    6. Noriyuki Takayama & Martin Werding (ed.), 2011. "Fertility and Public Policy: How to Reverse the Trend of Declining Birth Rates," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262014513, April.
    7. Assaf Razin & Efraim Sadka, 1995. "Population Economics," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262181606, April.
    8. Gary S. Becker, 1960. "An Economic Analysis of Fertility," NBER Chapters, in: Demographic and Economic Change in Developed Countries, pages 209-240, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Abdoulaye Ouedraogo & Mehmet S. Tosun & Jingjing Yang, 2018. "Fertility and population policy," Public Sector Economics, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 42(1), pages 21-43.
    2. repec:ipf:psejou:v:42:y:2018:i:42:p:21-43 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Filoso, Valerio & Papagni, Erasmo, 2015. "Fertility choice and financial development," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 160-177.
    4. Robinson, James A. & Srinivasan, T.N., 1993. "Long-term consequences of population growth: Technological change, natural resources, and the environment," Handbook of Population and Family Economics, in: M. R. Rosenzweig & Stark, O. (ed.), Handbook of Population and Family Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 21, pages 1175-1298, Elsevier.
    5. Bloom, D.E. & Luca, D.L., 2016. "The Global Demography of Aging," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 3-56, Elsevier.
    6. Abdullah, Muhammad & Chani, Muhammad Irfan & Ali, Amjad & Shoukat, Ayza, 2013. "Co-Integration Between Fertility and Human Development Indicators: Evidence from Pakistan," MPRA Paper 49134, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. XXX, Shuya & Iwata, Shinichiro, 2012. "Fertility and the user cost of home ownership: Evidence from regional panel data," MPRA Paper 37387, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Nicoletta Balbo & Francesco C. Billari & Melinda Mills, 2013. "Fertility in Advanced Societies: A Review of Research," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 1-38, February.
    9. Muhammad Zakaria & Bashir Ahmed Fida & Saquib Yousaf Janjua & Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad, 2017. "Fertility and Financial Development in South Asia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(2), pages 645-668, September.
    10. Parfait M. Eloundou-Enyegue & C. Shannon Stokes, 2007. "Demographic transitions and children's resources: growth or divergence?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 16(7), pages 195-218.
    11. Seema Jayachandran & Ilyana Kuziemko, 2011. "Why Do Mothers Breastfeed Girls Less than Boys? Evidence and Implications for Child Health in India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(3), pages 1485-1538.
    12. Grant Miller, 2005. "Contraception as Development? New Evidence from Family Planning in Colombia," CID Working Papers 9, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    13. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1a68qg411o9bg9jp7fhgh60n5p is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Martha J. Bailey, 2010. ""Momma's Got the Pill": How Anthony Comstock and Griswold v. Connecticut Shaped US Childbearing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(1), pages 98-129, March.
    15. Kristen Harknett & Francesco Billari & Carla Medalia, 2014. "Do Family Support Environments Influence Fertility? Evidence from 20 European Countries," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 30(1), pages 1-33, February.
    16. Siegel, Christian, 2012. "Female employment and fertility - the effects of rising female wages," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121905, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Christian Siegel, 2017. "Female Relative Wages, Household Specialization and Fertility," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 24, pages 152-174, March.
    18. Christoph Sax, 2011. "Constraint or choice? Disentangling fertility determinants by switching regressions," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 25(23), pages 723-754.
    19. Balasubramanian, Pooja & Ibanez, Marcela & Khan, Sarah & Sahoo, Soham, 2024. "Does women's economic empowerment promote human development in low- and middle-income countries? A meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    20. Steinhauer, Andreas, 2018. "Working Moms, Childlessness, and Female Identity," CEPR Discussion Papers 12929, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    21. Henry Ohlsson & Michael Lundholm, 2002. "Who takes care of the children? The quantity-quality model revisited," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 15(3), pages 455-461.
    22. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1a68qg411o9bg9jp7fhgh60n5p is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Grant Miller, 2005. "Contraception as Development? New Evidence from Family Planning in Colombia," NBER Working Papers 11704, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:erg:wpaper:1219. 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: Sherine Ghoneim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erfaceg.html .

    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.