Lessons from the past: policy implications of historical fertility studies

Citation: Knodel, J., Van De Walle, E. (1986) Lessons from the past: policy implications of historical fertility studies.
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Tagged: uw-madison (RSS), wisconsin (RSS), sociology (RSS), demography (RSS), prelim (RSS), qual (RSS), WisconsinDemographyPrelimAugust2009 (RSS)

Summary

4 main findings are reached regarding the European transition from high to low fertility, or interpretations of the evidence: 1) fertility declines took place under a wide variety of social, economic, and demographic conditions (more specifically, they focus on levels of infant mortality, literacy, urban population, % of men in agricultural labor force, Ig, Im, If). Therefore, there are no specific thresholds that need to be reached; 2) the practice of family limitation was largely absent among broad segments of the population prior to the decline in fertility (the decline when occurred, was more or less simultaneous in marital and nonmarital cases. They suggest that there is no reason to believe that withdraw was widely accepted or even known before the fertility decline), even though a substantial proportion of births may have been unwanted ; 3) increases in the practice of family limitation and the decline of marital fertility, once under way, were essentially irreversible processes (analysis based on m); and 4) cultural settings influenced the onset and spread of fertility decline independently of socioeconomic conditions (famous example of Belgium French speakers had an earlier transition than the Flemish part remember that France was the first country passing through fertility decline). Focus is on the European, particularly western European, experience because it has been the subject of more extensive research. The historical record suggests the relative lack of importance of income and prices and determining the demand for children before or during early stages of the fertility decline. When target family size begins to be articulated, the dominant factor may be tastes. This may reflect external influences as much or more than prevailing socioeconomic conditions in the particular society. The decline of fertility took place among countries with very different supply functions, both in terms of overall fertility and in terms of childhood survival. What is understood by the concept "cost of fertility regulation," a term that covers a wide variety of factors including sheer familiarity with the concept and means of family limitation, is a very important component of an explanation of the fertility decline as it occurred in Europe and as it will take place in many other areas of the world where high fertility currently prevails. Family limitation was an INNOVATION in Europe. THE DIFFUSION OF ATTITUDES TOWARD AND KNOWLEDGE OF CONTRACEPTION, and of contraceptive methods themselves, may trigger or accelerate the decline of fertility. If this interpretation of the European transition from high to low fertility is accurate, some of its early features can only be explained by a change in tastes or by a decline in the cost of fertility regulation or some combination of the 2 features. Finally, the authors defend the idea that high infant and child mortality rates found in much Europe prior to fertility decline can be considered as much as an accommodation to high fertility rather than the opposite. This interpretation helps to explain why a prior decline in infant mortality was not a necessary precondition for marital fertility to start to decline in a number of areas in Europe. They mention a number of practices that were adopted in Europe that were associated with high mortality such as hand-feeding. They also argue that mothers were frequently indifferent to the loss of a child.