Education, Fertility, and Remittances in the Traditional Sector of a Developing Economy

Abstract

The determinants of fertility behavior vary considerably from country to country. An oft-cited motivation for childbearing in developing countries is the economic returns parents expect to receive fro. their children. The demand for children as security assets is important in areas where insecurity is rife, alternative assets are risky or absent, and the support provided by children lacks market substitutes. An overlapping generations model in which fertility, children's education and migration are jointly determined by rural agricultural households is formulated. The effects on family size of changes in education costs, urban wages, child altruism towards parents, and rural living conditions are derived from the model. Same policy implications c-f the theoretical results are examined. The findings appear ta support the notion that as long as a traditional family-based system of obligations is retained and urban-rural wage differentials remain large, the security native will continue ta be significant as an explanation fer the high level of fertility in traditional rural societies.