Fertility decline in Scotland, England and Wales, and Ireland: comparisons from the 1911 census of fertility

Data on family size by year of marriage, age at marriage, and duration of marriage, from the 1911 Fertility Census, are compared between Scotland, England and Wales, Irish county boroughs, and the rest of Ireland. While means show significant inter-country differences, from the 1880s marked similarities are found across all the countries in the pattern of fertility decline, strongly suggesting significant fertility limitation in rural Ireland well before 1911. Noting the implications for the use of rural Ireland as a natural fertility population, the data are instead compared with the Coale-Trussell and Hinde-Woods schedules. The former provides more plausible results, which imply strong period rather than cohort effects in the fertility decline. Except in rural Ireland, little evidence is found for significant fertility limitation early in marriage among younger marrying couples, but many older marrying couples appear to have stopped childbearing at very low parities from an early date.     

Fertility in England and Wales: a fifty-year perspective

This paper provides a detailed account of fertility levels and trends in England and Wales since 1938, with a briefer coverage of a much longer time-span. The paper is concerned both with the measurement of fertility and with understanding the observed fertility behaviour. We lament and correct the failure of demographers to apply measurement tools available since the 1950s to the analysis of fertility in England and Wales, with a particular emphasis on adjustment of period measures and period parity progression ratios and show how some of the grosser errors of analysis and interpretation might have been avoided by earlier use of these approaches. We also relate these estimates to more recent ones. Once a clearer account of trends has been established, the paper goes on to reinterpret and explain the baby boom and baby bust. The conclusion looks at future prospects for fertility.     

Fertility in England and Wales: A Fifty-Year Perspective

This paper provides a detailed account of fertility levels and trends in England and Wales since 1938, with a briefer coverage of a much longer time-span. The paper is concerned both with the measurement of fertility and with understanding the observed fertility behaviour. We lament and correct the failure of demographers to apply measurement tools available since the 1950s to the analysis of fertility in England and Wales, with a particular emphasis on adjustment of period measures and period parity progression ratios and show how some of the grosser errors of analysis and interpretation might have been avoided by earlier use of these approaches. We also relate these estimates to more recent ones. Once a clearer account of trends has been established, the paper goes on to reinterpret and explain the baby boom and baby bust. The conclusion looks at future prospects for fertility.     

Social Class Differentials During Fertility Decline: England and Wales Revisited

This paper reviews the relationship between landholdings and fertility. Two dimensions of land are identified as salient for fertility behaviour: size of operational holdings and land ownership. It is suggested that these two dimensions and the resulting income streams have disparate effects on fertility. Size of holdings is assumed to have a positive influence on fertility due to the greater labour demands of larger holdings, while land ownership is posited to exert a negative long-term effect because of the increase in old-age security associated with the income returns to equity. In addition to these effects on the demand for children, landholding is also thought to influence the supply of children. A systematic review of the literature finds support for the impact of both dimensions of landholding on fertility preferences, contraceptive behaviour, the proximate determinants and fertility. Both the demand and supply of children appear to be influenced by landholdings. The observed regularities suggest the need for further research on this connection, not the abandonment of this line of inquiry.     

Infant mortality by Father’s occupation from the 1911 Census of England and Wales

Infant mortality in England and Wales only began its secular decline at the beginning of this century, although mortality among those aged 1-4 began to decline earlier. The 1911 Census of Fertility provides the basis for estimates of infant mortality among occupational groups. A diagrammatic model of decline is elaborated, using fertility decline, social class, income, and urban/rural distribution as explanatory variables. Results of the analysis suggest that infant mortality decline, whose average value was 35 percent from a peak of 132 per 1,000, was increased by improvements in the urban environment and advanced by high or regular income, whereas fertility decline had only a small effect.     

Fertility,Employment, and Child-Care Costs

A sample of labor-market and birth histories is used to estimate the effects of child-care costs on employment and fertility decisions. A reduced-form empirical analysis is performed, which is based on hazard functions for transitions among various fertility--employment states. Higher child-care costs result in a lower birth rate for nonemployed women but not for employed women. Higher child-care costs also lead to an increase in the rate of leaving employment and a reduction in the rate of entering employment. The results suggest that potential behavioral effects of child-care subsidies could be significant and should be taken into account when alternative child-care policies are being debated.     

Cohort nuptiality in England and Wales

Summary A computerized nuptiality system, called GENMAR, has been developed to investigate trends in cohort nuptiality in England and Wales. This system has five main programmes dealing with first marriage, the effects of changes in mortality on nuptiality measures, divorce, re-marriage, and marital status distribution. This paper summarizes the results of the application of the first programme to England and Wales data on first marriages of persons who were born in every single year since 1900. GENMAR-1 generated for each of these cohorts a 'complete' gross nuptiality table. The analysis shows that there have been substantial increases in the intensity of first marriage at young ages, a downward shift in the modal age at marriage, and a significant rise in the proportion ever married among women. The cohort nuptiality tables also show that the change in the nuptiality of women was due to changes in both the tempo and level of nuptiality, whereas the change for men was mainly the effect of shifts in the temporal pattern of nuptiality. There are, however, signs of a slow down of marriage among the cohorts born since the early 1950's.     

Another Child? Fertility Ideals,Resources and Opportunities

Low fertility in most developed countries has prompted policy concern in relation to labour market supply, pensions, and expenditure on health and welfare services as well as policy debate about both the cost of children and the opportunity costs of parenthood. The extent to which family policy interventions can be effective in slowing or reversing fertility decline is much debated. This paper, based on a fertility module of the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey 2005, examines the current fertility, and ideal and expected fertility of a nationally representative sample of 455 parents of reproductive age and focuses on whether they plan to have another child. It compares the characteristics of those who intend to have another child with those who do not, and how parents with one child differ from those with more children. It addresses three questions about family size: (1) fertility ideals, (2) resources and the economic implications of childbearing, and (3) opportunities for childbearing and the effects of a late start on fertility expectations. It concludes that, despite a sustained period of low fertility in Scotland, childbearing ideals are robust and explanations of low fertility must derive from difficulties in realising those ideals. Difficulties in realising fertility aspirations are associated less with resources than with opportunities for childbearing, especially the timing of first birth. Those who delay their first birth are less likely to realise their ideal family size, and their lower fertility is associated with the opportunity costs of childbearing in terms of foregone qualifications, careers and earnings.     

Marital Processes, Arranged Marriage, and Contraception to Limit Fertility

An international transition away from familially arranged marriages toward participation in spouse choice has endured for decades and continues to spread through rural Asia today. Although we know that this transformation has important consequences for childbearing early in marriage, we know much less about longer-term consequences of this marital revolution. Drawing on theories of family and fertility change and a rural Asian panel study designed to measure changes in both marital and childbearing behaviors, this study seeks to investigate these long-term consequences. Controlling for social changes that shape both marital practices and childbearing behaviors, and explicitly considering multiple dimensions of marital processes, we find evidence consistent with an independent, long-standing association of participation in spouse choice with higher rates of contraception to terminate childbearing. These results add a new dimension to the evidence linking revolutions in marital behavior to long-term declines in fertility and suggest that new research should consider a broader range of long-term consequences of changing marital processes.     

高等教育与中国女性生育数量北大核心CSSCI

近年来,我国受过高等教育的育龄女性比例大幅上升。高等教育女性作为西方现代婚育观念的率先接触者,她们的生育水平是未来我国育龄女性生育模式变迁的风向标。因此研究高等教育对我国女性生育水平的影响尤为必要。在研究高等教育对女性生育数量的影响时会同时面临内生性和生存数据结构问题。本文基于2015年1%人口抽样调查数据,利用1999年高校扩招政策和各省高等教育资源禀赋所带来的高等教育入学机会在出生队列和省份上的双重外生差异构造高等教育的工具变量,并使用IV-Poisson模型估计上大学对我国女性生育数量的影响;同时通过将样本中的女性起始年龄提高到30岁以上并限定为已婚来缓解生存数据结构问题。估计结果显示:相对于高中毕业生,接受高等教育的女性平均生育子女数量会下降30%左右。这种影响主要体现为上大学让女性生育二孩及多孩的概率大幅度下降,而并非不生。进一步分析发现劳动参与率是高等教育影响女性生育行为的一个重要机制。随着育龄女性中高等教育比例的继续提高,未来我国的生育水平可能会遵循西方的现代生育模式继续下降。我国的生育政策、劳动力市场政策等都亟须做出适应性的改革。构建生育友好型社会有助于降低高等教育对生育水平的影响。     

生育行为对老年女性健康的影响

立足于老龄化和生育政策调整的背景,文章利用中国健康与养老追踪调查数据,通过建立加速时效时间模型,系统分析了包含子女数量、性别结构、生育时间和生育期长等在内的生育行为对女性进入老年时期的健康的影响,并进一步在个体层面上测算了老年女性的健康生存时间.实证结果发现,生育行为对老年女性的健康会产生重要影响.从健康角度来看,生男生女都一样;而多子不但不会多福,还会降低老年女性的健康福利;同时,初育年龄太大或太小都将不利于女性老年时期的健康水平,而生育期延长会显著提升女性老年时期的健康水平.文章还探讨了生育行为对老年女性健康的影响机制,认为在目前生育政策调整的背景下应关注生育行为改变对女性健康的潜在影响.     

禀赋、场域与中国妇女生育意愿研究

利用2006年中国健康营养调查(CHNS)数据,构建模型,对中国18～52岁妇女的意愿生育决策、生育强度及其影响因素进行实证分析。在众多因素中,家庭已有孩子构成、能力禀赋、资本禀赋对妇女生育意愿有着显著影响,技术禀赋对妇女再生育的意愿和强度有重要影响。同时,将划分生育场域边界的地区变量纳入模型,显示不同区域间妇女的生育意愿存在较大差别,中西部地区妇女的生育意愿明显高于东北部地区;妇女禀赋条件越改善、禀赋水平越高、生育场域越优化,其生育意愿、生育强度越低,生育行为越趋理性。未来开展人口和计划生育工作,制定、调整人口和计划生育政策,应该对此予以充分考虑。     

贫困地区的妇女赋权和生育控制

妇女赋权是生殖健康的核心内容之一,它通过赋予妇女权力和机会,转变那些客观上存在性别歧视和社会不平等的一些结构和制度,增强妇女在社会、政治、经济上的权力,实现性别的平等与发展,改善妇女地位,使妇女生育率客观上得到控制。本文从妇女赋权的角度出发,通过妇女赋权对生育水平影响的路径分析来探讨从根本上解决贫困地区控制人口的可能途径：通过实现妇女赋权,增强妇女的自主性、独立性,促使妇女地位的提高,从而使妇女的状况得以改变,降低生育率。     

中国女性的社会经济特征与生育决策

女性的社会经济特征、婚姻地位及家庭结构等因素在家庭生育决策中起着重要作用。对2006年中国健康营养调查中的家庭微观数据的分析结果表明,女性的受教育程度、社会地位等社会经济特征与生育率显著相关;体现家庭结构的丈夫劳动参与和夫妻年龄差距等指标也对生育率有显著影响。另外,通过对城镇与农村的比较分析得出农村女性受教育程度的提高对生育率的影响要大于城镇。     

Delayed Marriage and Very Low Fertility in Pacific Asia

The general decline in fertility levels in Pacific Asia has in its vanguard countries where fertility rates are among the lowest in the world. A related trend is toward delayed marriage and nonmarriage. When prevalence of cohabitation in European countries is allowed for, levels of “effective singlehood” in many countries of Pacific Asia have run ahead of those in northern and western Europe. This raises questions about the extent to which delayed marriage has been implicated in fertility declines, and whether the same factors are leading both to delayed marriage and to lowered fertility within marriage. The article argues that involuntary nonmarriage is likely to be more common in Pacific Asia than in Western countries, and that resultant involuntary childlessness plays a substantial role in the low fertility rates currently observed.     

The fertility of teachers in England and Wales

Data on the fertility of teachers in grant earning schools in England and Wales were collected in 1955 as part of a general survey into the social characteristics of teachers. The survey was financed by the Nuffield Foundation with a contribution from the Population Investigation Committee. A subsequent article will discuss some possible determinants of fertility and in particular the interrelationship between social mobility and fertility. The present note describes changes in cohort fertility of teachers since 1915 and compares average family size with that of other sections of the population. The average number of children per married male teacher declined from 1.81 for the pre-1920 cohort to 1.47 for 1930–34. Segmental data after 1935 indicate a rise to approximately 2 children per family. Comparison with the Family Census suggests that the number of children of teachers is between 10% and 20% below that of all professions combined when the age at marriage of the wife is taken into account.     

关于我国妇女就业问题的思考

本文通过对我国 5 0年来妇女就业问题的回顾与理性思考 ,就未来在妇女就业问题上应采取的对策 ,提出建议     

Mortality in New Zealand and England and Wales

This paper compares age-specific mortality rates in England and Wales with those of New Zealand. Differences in rates are greatest at the younger age groups, and are particularly high for infants under 1 year and children between 1 and 5 years. The age-specific mortality rates for females under 25 years and for males under 35 years are analysed by causes of death in order to discover where the main differences between the two countries occur, and for infant mortality in England and Wales a further analysis has been made by social class. The greatest room for improvement in England and Wales mortality rates, as compared with New Zealand rates, is at ages under 5 years, and in infant mortality in particular the greatest differences between England and Wales and New Zealand rates by causes of death are for those causes usually associated with environmental influences.     

The spread of urbanization in England and Wales, 1851–1951

Each county in England and Wales has been classified as rural or urban for each of the decennial census years 1851–1951. One index has been used as the basis for these classifications, the percentage of adult males occupied in agriculture. Thus, for each census year a value, in term of this index, was fixed as the criterion to determine whether a county was rural or urban in that year. This criterion of classification varies, over time. This is to allow for the reduction in the percentage of adult males occupied in agriculture as a result of structural changes in the occupational distribution (associated with general modernization), rather than through a shift away from agriculture. The geographical patterns of urbanization in England and Wales during the period 1851–1951, and some associated social and economic changes, are discussed in the paper.