Lessons from the Past: Policy Implications of Historical Fertility Studies

Knodel, John; E, Van de Walle

doi:10.2307/1971824

Cited by 351 publications

(185 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…4 While some have stressed the importance of industrialization and urbanization (see, e.g., Brown and Guinnane 2002;Carlsson 1966;Davis 1945;Dribe 2009;Galloway, Hammel and Lee 1994;Notestein 1945), or the previous decline in infant and child mortality (Davis 1945;Dyson 2010;Easterlin 1996: 107-108;Notestein 1945;Reher 1999;Reher and Sanz-Gimeno 2007), others have emphasized ideational change affecting people's attitudes and readiness to limit family size (Cleland and Wilson 1987;Knodel and van de Walle 1979;Lesthaeghe 1977Lesthaeghe , 1980Lesthaeghe and Wilson 1986). In addition, combinations of these different approaches are also common in the literature.…”

Section: Survey Of the Field And Theoretical Foundationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioeconomic status and fertility before, during, and after the demographic transition: An introduction

Dribe¹,

Oris²,

Pozzi³

2014

DemRes

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BACKGROUNDDespite a long interest in the historical fertility transition, there is still a lack of knowledge about disaggregated patterns that could help us understand the mechanisms behind the transition. In previous research the widely held view is that there was a change in the association between social status and fertility in conjunction with the fertility transition, implying that fertility went from being positively connected to social status (higher status was connected with higher fertility) to being negatively associated with fertility. OBJECTIVEThe aim of this collection is to study socioeconomic patterns in the fertility transition in a variety of contexts using similar approaches and measures of socioeconomic status. METHODAll contributions use different kinds of micro-level socioeconomic and demographic data and statistical models in the analysis. Data either come from census-like records or population registers. CONCLUSIONSThere is no consistent evidence for the hypothesis that socioeconomic status was positively related to fertility before the demographic transition. While such a correlation was clearly present in some contexts it was clearly not in others. There is more support for the idea that the upper and middle classes acted as forerunners in the transition, while farmers especially were late to change their fertility behavior. It is also evident

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Section: Survey Of the Field And Theoretical Foundationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioeconomic status and fertility before, during, and after the demographic transition: An introduction

Dribe¹,

Oris²,

Pozzi³

2014

DemRes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is undisputable that a major change in the use of birth control took place in the late 19 th century in Europe and that parity specific control was largely absent in pretransitional Europe. Important participants in the EFP (Coale 1986, Knodel andVan de Walle 1986) suggest that the knowledge of the methods of deliberate birth control was unavailable/not acceptable or at least not used in Europe before the fertility transition.…”

Section: Fertility Control In 19 Th Century Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Deliberate Birth Spacing in Nineteenth Century Northern Sweden

Kolk

2011

Eur J Population

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Fertility in 19 th century Europe before the fertility transition has been described as high, unregulated and stable; the extent of fertility control remains a controversial topic. The aim of this study is to determine whether there is evidence of deliberate birth spacing in northern Sweden prior to the onset of the fertility transition. This study analyses micro-level parish records of 9 636 women in 19 th century northern Sweden -a remote but, at the time, Mots-clés : contrôle de la fécondité, transition de la fécondité, Europe, contrôle des naissances, démographie historique, espacement des naissances

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“…40 This is in line with a diffusion perspective on fertility change that argues that the spread of new ideas can result in behavioural change in reproductive matters. 41 Based on actual availability of education over the past three generations in this area, the younger women have had more education than the older ones, and both women and men have had more education in the semi-urban area than in the rural area. Neither formal education nor modern contraceptives had been available for most of the middle-aged and older women in the study.…”

Section: Education and Fertility Decline In The Context Of Environmenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Having fewer children makes it possible to educate them all: an ethnographic study of fertility decline in north-western Tigray, Ethiopia

Mjaaland¹

2014

Reproductive Health Matters

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Lessons from the Past: Policy Implications of Historical Fertility Studies

Cited by 351 publications

References 4 publications

Socioeconomic status and fertility before, during, and after the demographic transition: An introduction

Socioeconomic status and fertility before, during, and after the demographic transition: An introduction

Deliberate Birth Spacing in Nineteenth Century Northern Sweden

Having fewer children makes it possible to educate them all: an ethnographic study of fertility decline in north-western Tigray, Ethiopia

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