Bangladeshis

Holman, Darryl J.; O’Connor, Kathleen

doi:10.1007/0-387-29905-x_58

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Because the intensive data demands of our analysis required more detailed individual information than was available, we drew a random subsample of women from the HDSS for a tailored survey. Our sample included even numbers of women from (i) the ICDDR,B Area and the Government Service Area, and (ii) each of three 15-y age categories (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49), and 50-64), allowing for better representation of older women and 45 y of time depth regarding fertility and its correlates. Our final survey sample size was 944 women.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A model comparison approach shows stronger support for economic models of fertility decline

Shenk

Towner

Kress

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

118

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The demographic transition is an ongoing global phenomenon in which high fertility and mortality rates are replaced by low fertility and mortality. Despite intense interest in the causes of the transition, especially with respect to decreasing fertility rates, the underlying mechanisms motivating it are still subject to much debate. The literature is crowded with competing theories, including causal models that emphasize (i) mortality and extrinsic risk, (ii) the economic costs and benefits of investing in self and children, and (iii) the cultural transmission of low-fertility social norms. Distinguishing between models, however, requires more comprehensive, bettercontrolled studies than have been published to date. We use detailed demographic data from recent fieldwork to determine which models produce the most robust explanation of the rapid, recent demographic transition in rural Bangladesh. To rigorously compare models, we use an evidence-based statistical approach using model selection techniques derived from likelihood theory. This approach allows us to quantify the relative evidence the data give to alternative models, even when model predictions are not mutually exclusive. Results indicate that fertility, measured as either total fertility or surviving children, is best explained by models emphasizing economic factors and related motivations for parental investment. Our results also suggest important synergies between models, implicating multiple causal pathways in the rapidity and degree of recent demographic transitions.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The primary economy of the Matlab area is farming of rice and other crops, followed by fishing (48,49). Villagers may participate in agriculture even if they own no land themselves.…”

Section: Study Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A model comparison approach shows stronger support for economic models of fertility decline

Shenk

Towner

Kress

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

118

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Does Absence Matter?

Shenk

Starkweather

Kress

et al. 2013

Hum Nat

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This paper examines the effects of three different types of father absence on the timing of life history events among women in rural Bangladesh. Age at marriage and age at first birth are compared across women who experienced different father presence/absence conditions as children. Survival analyses show that daughters of fathers who divorced their mothers or deserted their families have consistently younger ages at marriage and first birth than other women. In contrast, daughters whose fathers were labor migrants have consistently older ages at marriage and first birth. Daughters whose fathers died when they were children show older ages at marriage and first birth than women with divorced/deserted fathers and women with fathers present. These effects may be mediated by high socioeconomic status and high levels of parental investment among the children of labor migrants, and a combination of low investment, high psychosocial stress, and low alloparental investment among women with divorced/deserted fathers. Our findings are most consistent with the Child Development Theory model of female life history strategies, though the Paternal Investment and Psychosocial Acceleration models also help explain differences between women in low paternal investment situations (e.g., father divorced/abandoned vs. father dead). Father absence in and of itself seems to have little effect on the life history strategies of Bangladeshi women once key reasons for or correlates of absence are controlled, and none of the models is a good predictor of why women with deceased fathers have delayed life histories compared with women whose fathers are present.

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Bangladeshis

Cited by 2 publications

References 52 publications

A model comparison approach shows stronger support for economic models of fertility decline

A model comparison approach shows stronger support for economic models of fertility decline

Does Absence Matter?

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