Abstract
The research reported here examines the fertility of U.S. farm women during the period in which rural America became electrified. It suggests that electrification was relatedly indirectly to fertility through the impact it had on farm and home production modes, and also through its facilitation of more general socioeconomic change. The model is tested using Census and Agricultural Census data for 473 rural farm counties at three points in time — 1930, 1940, and 1950.
Overall, the results of multivariate analyses generally support the conceptual model. The effects of farm production/technology factors, electrification, and sociodemographic characteristics are evaluated using OLS. The effects of electrification net of the other variables are significant when subsamples of Southern and non-Southern counties are examined separately, with electrification related to lower fertility in Southern counties and higher fertility in non-Southern counties. The findings emphasize the importance of considering potential demographic impacts when introducting rural development projects in developing countries.
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Department of Economics and Population Issues Research Center
This research was supported by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Washington, D.C., and by the Institute for Research on Land and Water Resources and the Institute for Policy Research and Evaluation of the Pennsylvania State University. The authors are grateful to Gordon De Jong, Daniel Lichter, Wayne Schutjer, and C. Shannon Stokes for comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.
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Cornwell, G.T., Robinson, W.C. Fertility of U.S. farm women during the electrification era, 1930–1950. Popul Res Policy Rev 7, 277–291 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02456106
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02456106