Vilon Viphongxay. Women's education and fertility : evidence from three provinces of Laos. Master's Degree(Population and Social Research). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2007.
Women's education and fertility : evidence from three provinces of Laos
Abstract:
Though fertility in Laos has declined, high fertility still exists
especially in rural and remote areas. This study focuses on the impact of womens
education on cumulative fertility. All women aged 15-49 from three provinces,
namely Phongsaly, Xiengkhuang and Champasak, enumerated in census 2005
were included in the study.
Univariate analysis was used to describe the demographic and socioeconomic
characteristics of the women, then bivariate analysis was used to assess
the relationship between cumulative fertility and some key independent variables.
Multivariate analysis (Ordinary Least Square Regression) was used to find out the
effects of womens education on cumulative fertility, controlling for other factors.
The result showed that educated women have fewer children than uneducated
women. Furthermore, the multivariate analysis indicated that womens level of
education has a significant negative effect on cumulative fertility. A stronger
effect is found in women who have high education.
Because education affects long term fertility, if Government wants to
have a sustainable improvement in the reproductive health of women and lower
fertility, the educational development of women needs to be improved in parallel
with other development programs. Future study should include other related
intermediate variables to assess the net effect of education on fertility.