Abstract:
Recent literature proposes that poverty could lead women to remain childless, thus attenuating or reverting higher fertility typically observed among women of lower schooling level. We explore the role of health in this approach: does health have a distinctive detrimental effect on fertility among women of lower schooling levels? To that end, we compute the gap in the definite childlessness rate by self-reported disability status across schooling levels. Due to the scarcity of survey data from definite childless women, in addition to the small sample sizes, we use census samples. Focusing on women between 40-50 years old and using 23 census samples from Latin America countries (2000-2011), we found that only in the group with lower schooling level there is a clear gap in the definite childlessness rate by self-reported disability status. From our descriptive analysis we conclude that health could indeed play an influential role in the childless by poverty approach.
Keywords:
Fertility; Education; Poverty
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Source: prepared by the authors. Note: includes women in the 40-50-year-old range in 23 IPUMS census samples from Latin America, including Brazil 2000, Brazil 2010, Chile 2002, Colombia 2005, Costa Rica 2000, Costa Rica 2011, Dominican Republic 2002, Dominican Republic 2010, Ecuador 2001, Ecuador 2010, El Salvador 2007, Haiti 2003, Jamaica 2001, México 2000, México 2010, Panamá 2000, Panamá 2010, Paraguay 2002, Trinidad and Tobago 2000, Trinidad and Tobago 2011, Uruguay 2006, Uruguay 2011 and Venezuela 2001. “C2005” stands for the sample from the 2005 Colombian census.
Source: prepared by the authors.Note: includes women in the 40-50-year-old range in 23 IPUMS census samples from Brazil, including Rondônia, Acre, Amazonas, Roraima, Pará, Amapá, Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás, and Federal District.