Journal of Economics and Development Studies

Effects of Fertility on Poverty in Niger
Abdoul Bassidou MAHAMAN YAOU, MamanNafiou MALAM MAMAN, Abdoul Azizou OUMAROU DAN-BAKI

Abstract
This paper evaluated correlation between fertility and the level of poverty of the households in Niger. We use data from the survey of the living conditions of the households and agriculture realized in 2015 by the national institute of statistics, on 8,880 households in Niger. We used instrumental variable model to isolate the effect of the endogenous fertility on poverty.We found that fertility and poverty of the households are simultaneously determined. With fertility being endogenous to the level of poverty of the households.Being correlated with the number of children in the household and not correlated with the status of poverty, a binary variable for the statusof polygamouswas used asan instrument in this work. Our results showed a very strong correlation between poverty and fertility in Niger. That confirms the presumption of causality between these two phenomena. Besides fertility, a certain number of variables likethe woman headship, number of migrated members of the household, the age of the households’ head, increase the risk of poverty of the households.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jeds.v6n4a10