Mass education and fertility transition

The relationship between the spread of mass education and fertility-limitin g behavior is examined. Existing theories relating education to fertility l imitation are integrated, including those relating the presence of educatio nal opportunity to fertility decline, theories relating women's education t o their fertility behavior and theories relating children's education to th e fertility behavior of their parents. Using survey data from a sample of 5 ,271 residents of 171 neighborhoods in rural Nepal, the individual-level me chanisms linking community-level changes in educational opportunity to fert ility behavior are tested. A woman's proximity to a school during childhood dramatically increases permanent contraceptive use in adulthood. This find ing is largely independent of whether the woman subsequently attended schoo l, whether her husband attended school, whether she lived near a school in adulthood, and whether she sent her children to school. Strong fertility li mitation effects were also found for husband's education and for currently living near a school. These effects were independent of other education-rel ated measures. The largest education-related effect is for sending children to school.