-optimization model with sharecropping, endogenous fertility and status seeking. We show that tenant farming is the major obstacle to … escaping the Malthusian trap with high fertility and low productivity. A land reform provides peasant families higher returns … decreases fertility and increases productivity in agriculture in the short and long runs. The European demographic history …

been the world's fastest growing region over the last decade. Economists have often argued that high fertility rates are … mainly driven by women's demand for children (and not by family planning efforts) with low levels of unwanted fertility … relationship between wanted fertility and number of children born in a panel of 200 country-years controlling for country …