Economics

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Demand for Children: A Micro-economic Analysis of Household Fertility Behaviour
(A.A.U, 1996-06) Ayalew, Tekabe; Bedri, Abdulhamid (Dr.)
A micro economic approach is employed in order to investigate the behaviour of households regarding demand for children. Two hypotheses, namely supply constrained and quality-quantity trade off, are tested. For the same purpose data from eight rural areas is used. The data was collected by the deparunent of Economics of AAU with institutional support of the Institute of Development Research, in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford. The results show that demand for children in rural areas of Ethiopia is supply rationed. Unlike markets for other commodities, consumers are not homogeneous regarding the supply. This is because children can not be bought and sold readily, so that every consumer (household demanding children) has to consume what it can produce. Thus, while some are supply constrained others may not. The implication of such finding is discussed, and possible trade off between child quality and quantity is also checked. If there is any observed trade off it operates through child labour: positively affecting quantity and negatively related with quality.