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More on Religion and Fertility: The French Connection

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  • Thomas Baudin

    (EQUIPPE - Economie Quantitative, Intégration, Politiques Publiques et Econométrie - Université de Lille, Sciences et Technologies - Université de Lille, Sciences Humaines et Sociales - PRES Université Lille Nord de France - Université de Lille, Droit et Santé)

Abstract

This paper contributes to the study of the relationship between religion and fertility. More speci cally, I investigate the impact of being Catholic on fertility in France. Fertility is measured either by the number of children ever born or by completed fertility. I show that women who are strong practicers have signi cantly more children than other women ; however, being a Catholic believer has no signi cant impact on fertility. I also construct two variables allowing me to detect that the particularized ideology mechanisms can partially explain why religion has an impact on fertility in my dataset. Nevertheless, I cannot exclude the social interactions hypothesis. The multivariate analysis I provide also validates the main mechanisms of the rational actor model.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Baudin, 2012. "More on Religion and Fertility: The French Connection," Working Papers hal-00993310, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00993310
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.univ-lille.fr/hal-00993310
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    File URL: https://hal.univ-lille.fr/hal-00993310/document
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Thomas Baudin, 2015. "Religion and fertility: The French connection," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(13), pages 397-420.

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