Summary of Findings
In each of the three studies that I analyzed, a high fertility rate led
to a lower educational attainment in children. Children with zero or one
sibling reached higher levels of education than children did with two or
more siblings. The implications of a small and large family are self-generating
whereas children from small families often grow up educated and have fewer
kids while children from large families often grow up uneducated and end
up having more offspring. Therefore the importance of lowering fertility
for an entire nation cannot be understated. Through this control of family
size, nations will see an increase in the educational attainment of their
children.
Consequences of High Fertility at Micro Level
When analyzing the effects of high fertility in a nation, we look at the
problem from two angles. One viewpoint is the macro level or the national
effect of such a policy while the other viewpoint looks at the situation
on a micro level or how the average family household is affected. More specifically,
on the micro level we study the impact that high fertility has on the children
of the household. What household factors influence their level of educational
achievement? This is the main question economists are attempting to answer.
The major components of children's time use are school, household work,
and market work. The more time that a child spends in school, the more he
will be benefiting the long-term welfare of himself and his family. By achieving
a higher level of education, a child will be ensuring his and his family's
future economic success since a high correlation has been found between
years of schooling and wealth. Early studies concluded that the children's
time was often used as a substitute for the mother's time in helping with
household chores and childcare. Although it may seem easy for children to
attend school in all countries, it is not. In order to obtain an education,
children must overcome many hurdles such as the availability and quality
of the surrounding schools and the cost of school. If there is a large opportunity
cost for sending a child to school, parents will often decide to keep the
child at home and use him as a helper or income generator for the household.
Other factors affecting a child's school attendance are the number and ages
of other children in the household, the mother's working environment and
productivity, and the amount of available household resources. Each of these
factors affects the amount of time that children allocate to education and
other activities. Children who must spend time at home or working outside
the home will naturally have less time to attend school.
In addition to looking at the micro level with regard to the child's welfare,
we must look at the parent(s) of the household. In most societies, the burden
of education lands on the parents. When a house has many children to care
for, the parents must divert less of their resources to each child, whereas
a small family can invest more resources per child and educate them better.
This phenomenon is known as the "dilution effect." As the number
of children in a household increases, the amount of resources available
to each child decreases. Not only does the term "resources" refer
to financial assets, but it also refers to the time parents must spend and
the emotion that they must put into parenting. Since the responsibility
of education is primarily placed on the parents, the importance of having
small children is large. Using this logic, we can easily infer that by increasing
the number of small families, we can increase the education of each generation.
Consequences of High Fertility at Macro Level
Shifting to the effects of high fertility at the macro level, we begin to
understand the more universal impact of this problem. In the Philippines
during the 1970's, the government sponsored a policy to reduce fertility
by using contraceptives. Although the policy weakened in the 1980's, the
country saw a decline in its fertility rate accompanied by an increase in
its educational enrollment. More children completed school throughout this
period and the government began to push elementary education for all children.
Because of the poor handling of the Philippine economy, these effective
policies didn't continue; however their short term success brought hope
to undeveloped and uneducated countries around the world.
In Thailand, a similar decline in fertility over the last two to three decades
had a positive impact on children's education at the macro and micro level.
After a short lag period, the lower fertility rates had translated into
slow growth in the school age population. This allowed governments to reach
their educational goals at a lower cost of funding. Further, the savings
from educational spending could be put forth to be used for the government's
more immediate needs. In order to promote higher levels of education, the
government could direct the spending to the expansion of existing schools.
Proof of this relationship between fertility rate and education can be found
in the analysis of Thailand from the 1960's to the 1980's. The total fertility
rate declined from six births per woman to just over two births per woman.
This substantial decrease brought about an increase in the national level
of education.
Results
In addition to the overall negative effect of high fertility on education,
there are many other factors that affect the educational attainment of children
such as the child's age or his placement in the family structure. When children
greater than the age of seven are present in the household, the mother has
more leisure time and also spends less time in home production. From this
we can infer that the children are aiding the mother with household duties,
possibly in lieu of attending school. Interestingly, a positive effect was
found on school enrollment by the presence of siblings with ages between
seventeen and twenty-four. This is most likely due to the fact that these
older siblings either go to school or they no longer live in the house,
leaving the remaining household resources for the younger child. If children
do not enroll in school at a young age, they are more likely to participate
in either household work or work outside of the house.
A positive relationship exists between the education of the mother of the
household and the school enrollment of her children. This could exist because
a higher education of the mother indicates that the family is in the upper
class or middle class and can afford to send their children to school. When
the child does not have a school nearby and must travel to get an education,
the chances that they will enroll in school decrease. This demonstrates
the need for more schools in these countries. In the school systems, girls
are more likely to enroll in school than boys are. The lower enrollment
of boys possibly shows that parents prefer to have their sons working instead
of going to school. The opportunity cost of educating boys is greater than
the opportunity cost of educating girls, or the parents believe that an
education is more likely to benefit girls than boys in the future. Another
interesting finding discovered in these studies is that children born earlier
in the family cycle are more likely to feel the effects of a high fertility
rate. When the first children are born, the parents rely on them for work,
however the children born later in the cycle are not as committed to working
and can attend school. Since the older siblings are working, the household
has more income and can support a child in school.
The results of this study give insight to what kind of policy the government
should pursue in order to increase education among its people. When children
engage in market work, only the education of the male is in jeopardy. Therefore,
to improve the education level of boys, the government should look at the
labor market for these boys. If the demand for the work of these boys is
lowered, the education levels reached by these boys will increase. With
regard to female school enrollment, the farther a school is located from
the female child's house, the lower the probability that she will enroll
in school. In order to improve this situation, the government should aim
to have schools located closer to residential areas. In general, if the
government can promote a policy of family planning and lower the fertility
rate, they will see future gains in the education of its people. The effects
of smaller families and higher levels of education will produce mothers
with more education who will be more likely to have fewer children and educate
them all.
In Thailand where the drop in fertility has brought an increase in school
enrollment, we see that the number of school age children has shrunk, making
primary school enrollments (which are mandatory) lower. As a result, the
government is not required to spend as much money on primary school and
can use it to increase the enrollment in secondary school. In small families,
the percentage of children who attend secondary school is higher than in
large families. Therefore it is important that Thailand maintain this low
fertility rate.
Classical Demographic Transition Theory
Caldwell provided the basis of the classical demographic transition theory
that larger families must become smaller so that there is increased investment
in children. He named five principles that describe how mass schooling will
affect the family economy.
1 - reducing time children can work on behalf of family in or outside home
2 - raising cost of children
3 - creating social norms about childhood as stage of dependency
4 - speeding up cultural change and creating new cultures
5 - propagating western middle class values within less developed countries
(Lloyd, Kaufman, and Hewett)
Each of these principles is important, however they affect the economy on different scales. Principles one and two affect the family economy whereas principles three, four, and five affect society as a whole. To deal with the effects of mass schooling, the government should address these five principles and look to enforce schooling for all children. In these principles, Caldwell emphasizes the role of schools as institutions outside the family that shape the manner in which children grow up. Because of this he advocates the teaching of western principles to the children so that they will understand the importance of education and pass it on to their own children. In addition, through the attainment of a higher educational level, the kids will realize that they can only have as many offspring as they can put through school. The higher education attained by the society will lead to a lower fertility rate so that an adequate amount of investment can be spent on each child.
1) Cynthia B. Lloyd, Carol E. Kaufman and Paul Hewett, "The Spread
of Primary Schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for Fertility Change,
in Population and Develoment Review, Vol. 26, No. 3, September 2000, pp.
483-515.
2) Deborah S. DeGraff, Richard E. Bilsborrow and Alejandro Herrin, "Children's
Education in the Philippines: Does High Fertility Matter?, in Population
Research and Policy Review, Vol. 15, June 1996, pp. 219-247.
3) John Knodel, "Fertility Decline and Children's Education in Thailand", in Fertility, Family Size and Structure: Consequences for Families and Children, Population Council, 1993, pp. 267-296.