EFFECTS OF MULTIFAMILY HOUSING ON MARITAL FERTILITY IN IRAN - POPULATION-POLICY IMPLICATIONS

The hypothesis of the relationship between housing types and fertility , which was originally developed and tested in Bogota, Colombia's hous ing study, is reexamined using Iranian data of urban married women of reproductive age. The findings of the study clearly and consistently s how that women living in single-family housing units have significantl y higher actual and desired fertility than women living in multi-famil y housing units, regardless of their major social, economic and demogr aphic differences. Furthermore, the analysis of the relative effects o f socioeconomic and demographic variables on fertility indicate that h ousing types have greater effects on fertility than wife and husband's level of education, when the effects of other variables are controlle d. This study implies that crowding and density, which generally are t he outcome of high fertility, do have feedback effects causing fertili ty to decline. This provides some evidence for the hypothesis of self- generating fluctuations in population growth which maintains that a la rge population will face stiff economic competition, lower incomes, co ngestion and crowding if other means of production as well as social i nfrastructure do not expand simultaneously. Finally, this study sugges ts an optimistic sign of fertility reduction in the large urban popula tions where the single-family housing units are being replaced by mult i-family housing units mainly because of high cost of land, material, and labor, and the shortage of housing units. Most of the large cities in Iran today fit the above descriptions.