Book Description

Annotation World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study No. 112. Assesses evidence of a negative correlation between the number of children born and levels of child schooling by examining their determinants. In many developing countries, as parents have fewer children, they invest more in the health, education, and welfare of each child. This "quantity-quality tradeoff" is vividly illustrated in the recent economic development of Southeast Asia and Latin America. In Sub-Saharan Africa, however, the existence of such a tradeoff has not been established. The few studies conducted to date reveal either no correlation or a slightly positive one, whereby higher fertility rates are linked to greater schooling per child. This study examines the determinants of fertility and of child schooling in C te d'Ivoire and Ghana to assess evidence of a tradeoff, using data from three surveys conducted between 1985 and 1987. The results are mixed. In C te d'Ivoire, there is evidence of such a tradeoff in urban areas but not rural ones. In urban areas, female schooling, higher income, and improved child survival are associated with lower fertility and higher child schooling. In both rural and urban areas of Ghana, there is a tradeoff between fertility and child schooling with higher incomes, and, in rural Ghana, with increases in mothers' schooling. Also available in French ("La relation entre le nombre des enfants et de la scolarisation: Le cas de la C te d'Ivoire et du Ghana"): (ISBN 0-8213-3374-7) Stock No. 13374.