Relation between fertility and income: A review of some interpretations

Abstract

This paper offers a review of some of the theoretical positions and historical-empirical research conducted on the relationship between fertility and income. In the first section, the author examines economic analyses that support a positive ratio between these two factors; he devotes the second section to theory of demographic transition which, for the most part, endorses the existence of a negative ratio; in the third section, he analyzes authors and empirical verifications that make the positive or negative nature of the ratio dependent upon the behavior of certain variables; in the last section, he presents and discusses two attempts to arrive at an overview of the entire topic.