Fertility choice and financial development / Dr. Asma’ Rashidah Idris

Fertility choice is parents make choices along family size with decisions about consumption, household income, child-rearing costs, condition of technology and also life-style. Fertility choice is measured by fertility rate that can be defined as the average number of children born per women over her lifetime. Suprisingly, global fertility rates are in general declining and current forecasts shows a decrease in fertility level globally. The total fertility rate (TFR) for the world remained at around five children per woman in the 1960s but it has declined dramatically from 4.98 in 1960 to 2.5 in 2010. In 2021, the total fertility rate is expected to be 2.44 children per woman globally It is expected to be around or below 2.0 by 2050 (United Nation, 2019). Do you know that fertility choice actually has influenced by the development in financial sector that has grown over the last decades? Worldwide, well-developed financial system facilitates firms to access to the credit market and enhanced production efficiency and promote increases in wages in the modern market. Household have choice to move from traditional market (low wages, high fertility rate) to work in modern sector (high wages, low fertility rate).