Determinants of Fertility at the Macro Level: New Evidence for Latin America and the Caribbean

This article analyses the factors associated with the decline of fertility in Latin America. Based on the microeconomic approach to fertility determinants, we use macro panel data for Latin American and Caribbean countries for the period 1960-2000. We estimate fertility determinants and test for the robustness of alternative specifications and different assumptions about the exogeneity of child mortality. Our results indicate that differences in fertility rates in time and among countries in the region in this period are mainly related to women’s education and, to a lesser extent, to GDP evolution and the process of urbanization.