• Economic Determinants of Fertility in Ghana

    Author(s):

    William Bekoe*, Sampson Kwabena Senahey** and Jacob Kingship Buxton***



    2024-08-01 04:25:23

    34 Downloads 52 Views

    Abstract

    In recent past, Ghana has witnessed modest declines in total fertility rates (TFR) but still remains the second most populous country in West Africa after Nigeria. Provisional census report for 2011 reveals a reversal in trend for TFR to 4.1 and a further marginal decline to 3.9 in 2017. This presents an opportunity to research further into other determinants of fertility aside the customary proximate determinants of fertility. This study therefore attempts to investigate primarily the economic determinants of fertility in Ghana and secondly, to evaluate the inclusion of taste variables on the impact of economic variables on fertility. The data used for the study is sourced from the Ghana Living Standard Survey 7 and employed the Negative Binomial Model as the estimation technique. The study demonstrates that wage, non-labour income, money cost of child bearing, hours of work supplied by household head and spouse are significant and negatively related to fertility levels in Ghana. The educational level of spouse that was used to proxy time cost of child bearing was insignificant but negatively related to fertility. Cost of fertility control and contraceptive usage had positive influence on fertility behaviour with only the latter being significant at all levels. The introduction of taste variables into the model had a significant impact on the effect of economic variables on fertility except for wage. The educational level of household head had a significant and positive impact on fertility. In line with these findings, the study recommends a comprehensive policy measure that will include improvement in normal and overtime wages, an increase in the support of NGOs responsible for poverty reduction, and intensified communication programmes on family planning especially in rural areas.

    Keywords
    Total Fertility rate, Negative Binomial Model, Ghana.

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