This article examines individual, household, and community characteris
tics that may affect fertility in contemporary Cote d'lvoire and Ghana
and the relationship between child mortality and fertility. It was no
t possible to reject the null hypothesis that child mortality is exoge
nous. Treating child mortality as exogenous, fertility responds direct
ly to child mortality, but by a smaller proportion than estimated in s
tudies of East Asia and Latin America. Increases in female education a
nd urbanization are likely to contribute to declines in fertility in b
oth countries, but economic growth without these structural changes is
not yet strongly related to lower fertility.