A Theory of Fertility: From High Plateau to Destabilization

Familial-based economies dominated by elders and males benefit from high fertility as large families provide labor and security against old age and hence economic advantage for those in positions of power and authority. The familial power structure serves the purpose of preserving stable relations of production and continuity in a materially advantageous status quo. In such economies the net intergenerational wealth flow is upward with women and the young consuming less and contributing more labor than men and elders. In the West where parents spend more on children and depend less on them the net intergenerational flow of wealth is a downward one. After industrialization in the West the precapitalist familial mode of production continued to oeprate inside households. A 2-tiered system of production thus prevailed until changes in the market economy gradually eroded the familial hosuehold mode of production thus leading to social change and making it uneconomic to have large families. Developing countries will no doubt pass through the same stage of a 2-tiered mode of production but the transition to a capitalist mode of production will be shorter due to the availability of contraceptives and the impact of education and the Western example emphasizing sex and age equality.