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Population growth and socioeconomic development : a case study of Bahrain

Most developing countries believe that the actual problem lies not in rapid population growth, but rather in slow socioeconomic development, that as the countries become urbanized and industrialized, as people become educated and infant mortality is reduced, parents will be motivated to reduce fertility and family size. Mixed success and high costs of supply-oriented programmes and lack of public resources in developing countries, have drawn the attention of a growing number of scholars to the role of the factors influencing the demand side of the reproduction process. In view of this contention this study attempts to analyse some of these social and economic determinants of fertility behaviour. The thesis begins with a brief historical survey of the major macro and micro theories of fertility. Starting with macro-economic theories of fertility, we have gone back to the time of Malthus and Marx. We also covered the Neo-Malthusian, Demographic Transition, and Alternative Macro-Economic theories. The development of modern fertility theory is traced through Becker's landmark 1960 article, Mincer's contributions (the opportunity cost of time, relative income) and Becker's 1965 Theory of Household Production. We also surveyed some of other theoretical work being done in the field by Richard Easterlin, Harvey Leibenstein, and others. Before making a choice, design and formulation of the appropriate model for the empirical work, the demographic picture of Bahrain is examined. Although a lot of work has been done on the economics of family size in developed and developing countries employing modern techniques in macroeconomics and microeconomics, there has been no study using data sets from Gulf oil rich countries. The present research will be confined to the experience of the state of Bahrain as an example. The empirical work is based on macro- and micro-analyses of fertility. In macro-analysis of fertility we use time-series data, the period covered in the investigation is from 1967-1986. In micro-analysis of fertility we use cross- section data, based on the 1981 census. Both analyses are based on micro economic theory of fertility. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) technique is employed most of the time to test the effectiveness of socioeconomic factors on fertility, although some Simultaneous Equations Models are constructed.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:674216
Date January 1991
CreatorsAbdul Ghani, Ahmed Abdul Hameed
PublisherUniversity of Leicester
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://hdl.handle.net/2381/35467

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