What affects a woman's decision to have children and the number of children she has?

• Autor(a) principal: da Silva, Denize Mirian
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Fernandes de Lima Medeiros, Fernandina, de Souza Beirão, Éder
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Argumentos (Montes Claros. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://www.periodicos.unimontes.br/index.php/argumentos/article/view/6157
• topic: Fecundidade; Número de filhos; Fatores Sociodemográficos; Demografia; Brasil

The fertility rate in Brazil is currently below the population replacement rate. As a result, problems related to labor shortages, social security and public health are some that may arise soon. In this context, this paper aims to analyze how sociodemographic variables affect a woman's decision to have children and the number of children she has. With the microdata from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) from 2002 to 2015, the Logit, Tobit and Negative Binomial models were estimated. The main results show that the fact that a woman is employed increases the probability of her having children and the number of children she has. In relation to color or race, being white increases the chances of motherhood occurring, but reduces the probability of a woman having a greater number of children. In addition, having a higher level of education and per capita income are associated with a lower expectation of choosing to be a mother and having a greater number of children.