Cover: Fertility in Israel, An Economist's Interpretation : Differentials and Trends, 1950-1970.

Fertility in Israel, An Economist's Interpretation : Differentials and Trends, 1950-1970.

by Yoram Ben-Porath

Purchase Print Copy

 FormatList Price Price
Add to Cart Paperback59 pages $23.00 $18.40 20% Web Discount

The number of children that families have depends largely on their own desires, and the number desired depends largely on their resources. A fertility model is presented in terms of the role of education. Years of schooling is used as a proxy for human wealth. There is a weak relation between the husband's education and the number of children, but there is a clear-cut negative relation between the wife's education and the number of children. In spite of the rapid income increase among the Arab population, only now has there been a spurt in the education level of Arab women. More than half now entering the child-bearing years have had five or more years of schooling. There are, therefore, grounds for predicting a decline in the fertility of the Arab population of Israel. 59 pp

This report is part of the RAND Corporation Research memorandum series. The Research Memorandum was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1948 to 1973 that represented working papers meant to report current results of RAND research to appropriate audiences.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.