The project is meant
to add to our knowledge about the importance of women’s education and status
for fertility and mortality in developing countries. These factors have attracted
much interest in fertility research as well as political discussions about the
possibilities for eliminating the high fertility that still exists in many
countries. There is a lack of quantitative studies demonstrating an impact of
women’s empowerment, and even the importance of education needs to be better
assessed. Above all, the spill-over effects from other women’s education is
rarely taken into account when the total response to investments in education
is discussed, and little is known about the context dependence of education
effects. In this project, both micro- and macro-level indicators of women’s
education and status are considered, using data from DHS surveys in
Kravdal, Ø (2000). A search for aggregate-level
effects of education on fertility, using data from
Kravdal, Ø. (2001)
Kravdal, Ø. (2002). Education and
fertility in sub-Saharan
Moursund, A. and Ø. Kravdal (2003). Individual and community
effects of women’s education and autonomy on contraceptive use in
Kravdal, Ø. (2003). The problematic estimation of “imitation effects” in multilevel
models. Demographic Research online at
www.demographic-research.org/ Volumes/Vol9/2
Kravdal, Ø. (2004). Child
mortality in