Twins Support the Absence of Parity-Dependent Fertility Control in Pretransition Populations.
A conclusion of the European Fertility Project in 1986 was that pretransition populations mostly displayed natural fertility, where parity-dependent birth control was absent. This conclusion has recently been challenged for England by new empirical results and has also been widely rejected by theori...
| Published in: | Demography (Springer Nature) Vol. 57; no. 4; pp. 1571 - 1596 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
Aug2020
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=145260360&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 145260360 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00703370 DEM jtl: Demography (Springer Nature) issn: 00703370 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Aug2020 vid: 57 iid: 4 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 145260360 10.1007/s13524-020-00898-0 ppf: 1571 ppct: 25 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 651KB tig: atl: Twins Support the Absence of Parity-Dependent Fertility Control in Pretransition Populations. aug: au: Clark, Gregory Cummins, Neil Curtis, Matthew affil: Department of Economics, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA Department of Economic History, London School of Economics, and Center for Economic Policy Research, London, UK su: England Québec (Québec) Birth control Family size Economic expansion Bear populations Industrial districts sug: subj: Birth control Family size Economic expansion England Québec (Québec) Family Planning Centers Bear populations Industrial districts keyword: Economic growth Economic history Family planning Fertility Natural fertility Economic growth Economic history Family planning Fertility Natural fertility ab: A conclusion of the European Fertility Project in 1986 was that pretransition populations mostly displayed natural fertility, where parity-dependent birth control was absent. This conclusion has recently been challenged for England by new empirical results and has also been widely rejected by theorists of long-run economic growth, where pre-industrial fertility control is integral to most models. In this study, we use the accident of twin births to show that for three Western European–derived pre-industrial populations—namely, England (1730–1879), France (1670–1788), and Québec (1621–1835)—we find no evidence for parity-dependent control of marital fertility. If a twin was born in any of these populations, family size increased by 1 compared with families with a singleton birth at the same parity and mother age, with no reduction of subsequent fertility. Numbers of children surviving to age 14 also increased. Twin births also show no differential effect on fertility when they occurred at high parities; this finding is in contrast to populations where fertility is known to have been controlled by at least some families, such as in England, 1900–1949, where a twin birth increased average births per family by significantly less than 1. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|