The paper is concerned with two theories that proport to explain fertility variations in developing countries. The first of these theories is based on supply or naturalfertility considerations whilethe second looks to (the underlying) costs and benefits of children as one source explanation for...

KHANEconomists, sociologists and demographers must often attempt to answer important questions with data not well suited to the problem at hand. One example that crops up frequently in socio-economic-demographic literature is the use of samples of women, whose ages span the entire fecund period,...

The average age at which women marry and the number of children they produce tend to be negatively correlated. This negative relationship has received a good deal of attention from social scientists over the past several decades, and it has on occasion been suggested that if governments could...