Abstract There is continuing debate on how low China’s fertility has reached and whether China fallen into the “low trap”. This paper addresses this by revisiting trends in preferences past decades based a meta review. Moreover, analysis contrasts distinct measurements of to capture different aspects reproductive decision-making. papers reviews 152 studies resulting 137 estimates for mean prefe...

Fertility has declined substantially in developing countries in the period since 1960, primarily as the result of increases in contraceptive prevalence. Little dispute is found on this point, but considerable debate has arisen about the causes of the increase in contraceptive prevalence. One unresolved issue is the causal contribution of changes in fertility desires. The sources of increase in ...

In women, changes in preference during the menstrual cycle have been documented for attractiveness judgements of odour and various physical and behavioural male traits. Although many studies have demonstrated greater attraction to masculine traits, such as male faces, bodies, and voices, at high fertility, several recent studies present null results for these shifts in preferences. Moreover, ev...

Son preference predominates in China, yet there are patterned exceptions to this rule. In this paper, we test whether lineality (patrilineal versus matrilineal inheritance and descent) is associated with son versus daughter preference among the ethnic Mosuo (Na) of Southwest China. Our results show (i) an increased probability of continued fertility among matrilineal women after having a son co...

International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 170 vated rates of pregnancy and STIs (including HIV) among maternal orphans, but not among paternal orphans;3,4 and a third found that risk emerged for paternal orphans only if the father’s death had occurred when the child was younger than 12.6 Qualitative research is needed to better understand orphans’ emotional response to their ...

This paper looks at the interaction of poverty, fertility preferences and family planning practice in the Philippines using the series of nationally representative Family Planning Surveys conducted annually since 1999 augmented by census and other survey data. Its contribution lies on providing recent and nationally representative empirical evidence on the long running but largely unresolved de...

In this article data from the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) are used to analyse gender differences in fertility intentions, and the correspondence between fertility intentions and subsequent fertility behaviour. By exploiting couple-level data, we examine whether partners have conflicting preferences for future fertility. Focusing on women who remain childless in their thirties we look a...

Economic growth and modernization of society are generally associated with fertility rate decreases but which forces trigger this is unclear. In this paper we assess how fertility changes with increased labor market participation of women in rural Senegal. Evidence from high-income countries suggests that higher female employment rates lead to reduced fertility rates but evidence from developin...

Fertility decline is still a puzzle. A recent body of work has suggested that changes in kin networks may help explain changing reproductive behaviour. As countries modernise, kin networks break down and association with non-relatives becomes more common. This reduces both the practical support available to mothers in raising children, and affects reproductive norms. This paper presents the res...