Economic Motives for Family Limitation: A Study Conducted in Taiwan

A survey financed by the Population Council and the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan was undertaken in Taiwan in 1969 to examine linkages between economic change and fertility change at the family level. The study was based on personal interviews with a cross-section of 2200 Taiwanese men living island wide whose wives interviewed 20 months earlier had provided detailed information on the couples fertility histories and contraceptive use. The interviews with the men brought this information up to date but was devoted largely to inquiry on economic matters. The wives were all 42 years old or younger. Parts I and II of the paper are descriptive and methodological respectively. Parts III and IV focus on socioeconomic and demographic factors as possible determinants of contraceptive use and consequent family size. In short economic considerations do affect fertility decision. Couples tend to practice stricter fertility control as a function to a large extent of educational advancement and to a lesser extent of rising income increasing exposure to mass media and increasing availability of consumer goods. These factors seem more important than the shift per se from agriculture to industry and the resulting urbanization. The influence of economic attitudes is strongest among couples under age 30. Individuals often confront family planning with ambivalent attitudes; the small family has economic advantages but the large family has certain emotional and traditional appeals.