Fertility and Rural Electrification in Bangladesh
Interim Report
Edited by SHONCHOY Abu
Published in March 2015
Cover (109KB)
Fertility and Rural Electrification in Bangladesh (304KB) / Tomoki Fujii and Abu Shonchoy
Using a panel data set in Bangladesh, we study the relationship between fertility and rural electrification using infrastructure development and the quality of service delivery as instrumental variables for the adoption of elec-tricity. 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 the current fertility behavior if the optimal number is not yet reached.