Publication Type

Working Paper

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

3-2015

Abstract

We use a panel dataset from Bangladesh to examine the relationship between fertility and the adoption of electricity with the latter instrumented by infrastructure development and the quality of service delivery. We find that the adoption of electricity reduces fertility, and this impact is more pronounced when the household already has two or more children. This observation can be explained by a simple household model of time use, in which adoption of electricity affects only the optimal number of children but not necessarily current fertility behavior if the optimal number has not yet been reached.

Keywords

time use, infrastructure, fertility, Bangladesh, ordered probit regression, panel data

Discipline

Behavioral Economics | Economics

Research Areas

Applied Microeconomics

First Page

1

Last Page

61

Publisher

Institute of Developing Economies, JETRO, Discussion paper No. 521

City or Country

Chiba, Japan

Copyright Owner and License

Publisher

Additional URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2344/1432

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