Jennings Elyse A, Pierotti Rachael S
a University of North Carolina.
b The World Bank.
Popul Stud (Camb). 2016;70(1):115-33. doi: 10.1080/00324728.2016.1140806. Epub 2016 Mar 3.
As couples across the globe increasingly exercise conscious control over their reproduction, both spouses' family-size preferences have the opportunity to influence their fertility. Using couple-level measures of rural Nepalese spouses' family-size preferences and more than a decade of monthly panel data collected subsequently on fertility outcomes, we investigate how both spouses' preferences influence progression to a third birth in a country where the widely professed ideal family size is two children. Contrary to expectations based on women's relative disadvantage, we find that it is wives' preferences that drive couples' progression to a third birth. We find also that the influence of wives' preferences is not explained by contraceptive use but that this influence is moderated by couple communication about family planning. Wives' preferences drive progression to a third birth among couples who had discussed how many children to have.
随着全球各地的夫妇越来越有意识地控制生育，夫妻双方对家庭规模的偏好都有机会影响他们的生育情况。我们使用尼泊尔农村夫妇对家庭规模偏好的夫妻层面衡量指标，以及随后收集的十多年关于生育结果的月度面板数据，来研究在一个普遍宣称理想家庭规模为两个孩子的国家，夫妻双方的偏好如何影响生育第三个孩子的进程。与基于女性相对劣势的预期相反，我们发现推动夫妻生育第三个孩子的是妻子的偏好。我们还发现，妻子偏好的影响不能通过避孕措施来解释，但这种影响会受到夫妻关于计划生育沟通的调节。在讨论过要几个孩子的夫妻中，妻子的偏好推动了生育第三个孩子的进程。
