Twins Support the Absence of Parity-Dependent Fertility Control in Pretransition Populations.

ABSTRACT: A conclusion of the European Fertility Project in 1986 was that pretransition populations mostly displayed natural fertility, where parity-dependent birth control was absent. This conclusion has recently been challenged for England by new empirical results and has also been widely rejected by theorists of long-run economic growth, where pre-industrial fertility control is integral to most models. In this study, we use the accident of twin births to show that for three Western European-derived pre-industrial populations-namely, England (1730-1879), France (1670-1788), and Québec (1621-1835)-we find no evidence for parity-dependent control of marital fertility. If a twin was born in any of these populations, family size increased by 1 compared with families with a singleton birth at the same

SUBMITTER: Clark G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7441081 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature