Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Reproductive Decision-Making In Transitional Contexts, Kristin Snopkowski

Kristin Snopkowski

Over the past two hundred years, most societies around the world have experienced fertility transitions, defined as a dramatic decline in reproductive rates through time. The conscious decision to reduce fertility to very low levels appears maladaptive and poses a theoretical challenge to human behavioral ecologists who expect humans to maximize long term fitness. I develop a theoretical model to explain currently low fertility rates that incorporates both cultural and economic hypotheses of fertility decline and test these using data from San Borja, Bolivia, a society currently undergoing a fertility transition. Results show that both economic and cultural information are …