Education as policy: The impact of education on marriage, contraception, and fertility in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia

Keywords

world fertility, Latin America, educational effects

Abstract

Using data from the World Fertility and Demographic and Health Surveys of Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, we model the effects of education on three demographic outcomes: the timing of first sexual union, contraceptive use, and fertility. These effects are examined over time and across geographic areas using a multivariate framework. We find substantial improvements in female educational attainment over the last fifty years and a strong relationship between education and the demographic outcomes. Each successive increment in education is associated with declines in the marriage rate, increased contraceptive use, and lower fertility. Education accounts for some of the changes over time in the demographic outcomes, but the pattern varies by outcome, time period, and geographic area. In support of the social diffusion hypothesis, our results indicate that educational differences in reproductive behavior are reduced as the level of development increases and societies pass through their demographic transition.

Original Publication Citation

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/87A1F1BCCF52DC1C37A0AC0634C11008/S0021932098001072a.pdf/infant_feeding_practices_and_child_health_in_bolivia.pdf

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2010-08-23

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/5632

Publisher

Social Biology

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Sociology

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

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