In Some Places, Fertility Rates Declined Before the Industrial Revolution http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/anderson-review/fertility …pic.twitter.com/Tch4E0UlIz
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I read an interesting paper once about France's fertility decline post revolution where they mentioned that it only took about 10-20% of women limiting their total number of children to about 3 to effect the fertility decline that France experienced
nobody really knows the cause, but it is remarkable that it happened in what was still a peasant country, with low literacy, before industry and large urbanization had spread
As the paper hbd links to suggests, an attitudinal shift in a minority of women is enough to do the trick and seismic cultural event like the Revolution is probably what triggered it
in Rouen aristocratic fertility was already at modern levels (2.7) before the revolution, and other classes were falling too.pic.twitter.com/tOfLdr95As
This paper suggests reason is upper class women going childless to participate more actively in socialite society. The high fertility of lower classes is surprising though, given that in most other places pre-transition it was higher among higher classes
didn't they have servants to allow them to both have children and socialize? (Thanks for bringing this paper to attention -- a couple years ago now!)
yes, the authors very much come away from the paper with as many questions as they have answers
Differential levels of religiosity between classes?
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