Abstract

PIP: The interplay between education and fertility has a significant influence on the roles women occupy, when in their life cycle they occupy these roles, and the length of time spent in these roles. The overall inverse relationship between education and fertility is well known; but little is known about the theoretical and empirical basis of this relationship. This paper explores the theoretical linkages between education and fertility and examines the relationships between the 2 at 3 stages in the life cycle. It is found that the reciprocal relationship between education and age at 1st birth is dominated by the effect from education to age at 1st birth with only a trivial effect in the other direction. Once the process of childbearing has begun, education has essentially no direct effect on fertility; but it has a large indirect effect through age at 1st birth.