A SOCIOECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF FERTILITY - THE CASE OF VIETNAM

This paper is an economics-based quantitative analysis of the determin ants of individual fertility in Vietnam, measured as the number of chi ldren ever born, In addition to the conventional linear model, two lim ited dependent variable models, Poisson and ordered-legit, are estimat ed using data from the 1988 Vietnam Demographic and Health Survey. We find, among other things, that husbands' characteristics are almost as important as those of wives in determining fertility, perhaps a refle ction of the still dominant role of husbands in Vietnamese families. B oth paternal and maternal education have important impacts on fertilit y. Of special interest is the evidence that supports the attitudinal e ffect of education over the opportunity-cost effect.