Fertility In Malaysia Research Articles

Demographic Determinants of Women's Fertility Decision

Malaysia is an interesting country to study despite a dramatic change in demographic and socioeconomic development. The division of socio-economics among the three ethnicities was influenced by the British colonization, until its independence in 1957. This paper develops an empirical model to investigate the principal determinants of fertility in Malaysia employing panel data extracted from census data from Minnesota Population Centre, Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, International, which was provided by Department of Statistics Malaysia. The analyses were based on proxy of four demographical effects: marital status, age, ethnicity and location. The analyses employ binary model using the dependent variable as 0 (no children) and 1 (with children). The results obtained in this study showed that Malaysian women prefer to have children between the age of 30 to 44. As in the case of ethnicity, only two ethnic groups were significant, with higher probability among Malays at 19 percent and second among Indians at 13 percent. The last variable on location was significant, which indicates that urban Malaysians prefer not to have more children at a probability of 8.9 percent. Consequently, these results demostrate that women’s preference for children are associated with age, marital status and ethnicity.

Women Fertility Decision using the Count Model in Malaysia

Fertility depends on household decisions in Malaysia; and, in turn, these decisions are strongly influenced by economic and socio-economic factors. Currently, fertility levels around the world vary according to the intergenerational relationships, the socio-economics statuses, and the socio-demographic characteristics of a particular nation. In general, more industrialized and economically developed societies have lower fertility than less-developed societies do. Groups that are more educated and earn higher incomes have lower fertility than less-educated groups with lower incomes do. The purpose of this paper is to dicuss the development of the empirical model to identify the principal determinants of fertility in Malaysia. The results stemmed from the use of panel data that is obtained from the Minnesota Population Centre, the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, and international data provided by the Department of Statistics, Malaysia. In the empirical analysis, count models are employed. The findings show that marital status, owning a house, and households having women of child-bearing age all affect fertility decisions. In addition, social characteristics, such as ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status, and education level, affect household’s fertility decision.

Low fertility in Malaysia: Can it be explained?

This study assesses the determinants of the fertility rate in Malaysia using the combined tests for cointegration and generalised variance decomposition analysis of time series data for the period 1980–2012. We find that the fertility rate is cointegrated with its determinants, i.e. female employment, female education, medical quality and per capita income. Consistent with findings from cross-sectional surveys and fertility theories, fertility in Malaysia has an inverse relationship with female employment, female education and medical quality. Additionally, we also find an inverted U-shape relationship between fertility and per capita income. Our study reaffirms that socio-economic determinants play a significant role in explaining the transition of fertility in Malaysia over the short-run and long-run.

Female labour force participation, infant mortality and fertility in Malaysia

In reviewing the population policy in 1984, the Malaysian government called for a major shift from family planning to family and human resource development to achieve an ultimate population of 70 million by 2100. However, regardless of the government's initiatives since 1984, Malaysia's fertility rate still declined. This study examines the short-run and long-run relationship and causality between female labour force participation rate, infant mortality rate and fertility in a developing country in Asia – Malaysia. We employ the unit root test which allows for two structural breaks, and the break dates are then used as dummy variables in the bounds testing procedure within an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) modelling approach and Granger-causality test. The results indicate that mortality changes have a significant and positive long-run impact on fertility rate and women's child bearing decisions are unaffected by their employment situation. In addition, we do not find evidence that presence of children hinders re-employment and continuous female employment.

The Determinants of Household Fertility Decision in Malaysia; An Econometric Analysis

Fertility depends on household decision, which are strongly, influenced by economic and socioeconomic dimensions. Currently, the fertility level in the world varies greatly according to intergenerational relationship, socio-economics status, and socio-demographic characteristics of the nation. In general, more industrialized and economically developed societies have lower fertility than less developed societies. Also, more educated group with higher incomes have lower fertility than less educated group with lower incomes. This paper develops an empirical model to investigate the principal determinants of fertility in Malaysia employing panel data extracted from Minnesota Population Centre, Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, International provided by Department of Statistic Malaysia. In the empirical analysis count models are employed. The finding shows that marital status, owning a house and women child bearing age affects fertility decision. In addition, socio-characteristics such as ethnicity, religion, working class, level of education affect the fertility choices of the household.

Biochar from Empty Fruit Bunches, Wood, and Rice Husks: Effects on Soil Physical Properties and Growth of Sweet Corn on Acidic Soil

The Intentional amendment of soil with biochar is offering a new strategy for enhancing soil physical properties and soil fertility. Nonetheless, the characteristics of biochars vary with their different conditions and pyrolysis techniques. The objective of the present study was to improve the understanding of how adding biochar applications and the pyrolysis of native feedstock to acidic soil can be utilized to amend soil physical properties and soil fertility in Malaysia. Three kinds of primary biochar were used, empty fruit bunch (EFB) and wood biochar (WB) were produced from slow pyrolysis, and rice husk biochar (RHB) was prepared by gasification. The biochars were characterized by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area analysis and scanning electron microscopy and applied at 15 and 30 t/ha to acidic soil. Results indicated that the total surface area of the RHB was approximately double of that of EFB and five times greater than that of WB. The application of RHB at 30 t/ha significantly increased the drained upper limit, permanent wilting point, hydraulic conductivity, and total porosity; however, this increase did not result in increased sweet corn growth, while EFB applied at rates 30 t/ ha resulted in a highly positive effect on sweet corn growth, suggesting that EFB has important potential benefits for agriculture, in conclusion, the selection of biochar as a soil amendment must be based on the intention of the amendment. If to enhance soil physical charactertics are an aim, then RHB is the most suitable option. If the objective of soil biochar amendment is to increase soil fertility, then EFB will be suitable choice.

Determinants of Fertility in Malaysia — How Much Do We Know?

Recent trends in fertility in Malaysia1 have created uncertainty about the course of the demographic transition. While Chinese and Indian fertility continued to decline into the 1980s, since 1978, Malay fertility has levelled off and even risen slightly. Evidence up to the early 1980s suggests that the phenomenon may be temporary, attributed mainly to the bunching of births caused by the postponement of marriage among the Malays. More recent evidence, however, point to sustained levels of high Malay marital fertility through the late 1980s — TFRs (total fertility rate) among Malays averaged 4.5 and above between 1982 and 1987 while Chinese and Indian TFRs continued to fall from 2.7 to 2.3 and 3.8 to 3.5, respectively.

The impact of expected child survival on husbands' and wives' desired fertility in Malaysia: A log-linear probability model

The Malaysian Family Life Survey (MFLS) conducted in 1976-77 provides an opportunity to explore quantitatively the relationship between expected child survival on husbands and wives desired fertility. A valuable feature of the MFLS is that several questions were addressed to both husbands and wives. This study incorporates both sets of answers into the analysis. The hoarding hypothesis suggests that parents who expect a small fraction of children to survive would be more likely to desire additional births than their counterparts with more optimistic expectations. The results presented were obtained using the log linear probability model. In view of the fact that the desire to have at least 1 child is almost universal in Malaysia couples with no children at time of the interview were excluded from the analysis. The figures under in the table measure the impact of the various exogenous variables on the probability that H equals 1 i.e. that the husband wants to have additional children. If an exogenous variable say x has a positive sign in the H column this means that other factors held constant a rise in x increases the odds that H will equal 1. The figures under are the corresponding estimates for wives. The interaction term captures the influence of husbands desired fertility on the wifes and vice versa. Aside from the child mortality variables several other covariates are included in the analysis as controls. As expected the interaction term was positive and highly significant; the fertility desires of husbands and wives were positively associated. Other factors held constant if the husband wanted more children this makes it more likely that the wife will want more children and vice versa. The constant term was significantly larger for husbands than wives. Ceteris paribus husbands had preferences for larger family sizes than wives. Son preference was confirmed only for fathers and did not seem to be prevalent among women. Results showed an insignificant impact of female education on desired future fertility. For male education there was both a negative and a postive sign; the former for wives and the latter for husbands. The 2 coefficients associated with death were positive as expected but significance was low. The t ratio was 0.14 in the H column and 1.2 in the W column. Holding constant actual child deaths in the family and the control variables fathers perceptions of child survival probabilities affected desired fertility but mothers perceptions did not. The husbands perceptions had no influence on W; the wifes perceptions had no influence on H.

Migration and Fertility in Malaysia: A Tale of Two Hypotheses

The impact of migration on fertility has been a popular topic of inquiry but has often yielded ambiguous and contradictory findings. The purpose of this article is to suggest a conceptual and methodological framework which resolves much of the ambiguity and to demonstrate the framework's usefulness for analyzing migration and fertility in Malaysia. Specifically, two models are formulated based upon the additive influences of place of origin with place of destination and the interactive effects of migration per se. These models are then tested using data from the 1966–67 West Malaysian Family Survey. It is found that the additive or “assimilation” model accounts for most of the covariation of migration and fertility in Malaysia. However, two interesting exceptions, rural to urban and urban to small town migrants, require use of both models. The additive, residential effects are then analyzed in terms of their sociodemographic dimensions.

Migration and Fertility in Malaysia: A Tale of Two Hypotheses

Migration and Fertility in Malaysia: A Tale of Two Hypotheses

Economic Analysis of Fertility in Israel: Point and Counterpoint

I view, in this paper, cross-section evidence on fertility in Israel through a very simple hypothesis based on the links among education, the cost of time of women, and the full price of children. The hypothesis is useful in explaining some aspects of behavior, but important facets of the variation in fertility remain unexplained. In recent years there have been several attempts to bring the determination of family size within the scope of the economics of household behavior (see Leibenstein 1957; Becker 1960; Mincer 1963; Easterlin 1968, 1969; Schultz 1969; and others). An economic theory of fertility starts with the postulate that hotuseholds maximize some utility function in which children and other goods appear as arguments subject to resource constraints in which the prices or the costs of production of the arguments appear. The effect of a change in any variable on the number of children depends on the extent to which it lifts the general resource constraint and induces an income effect and the extent to which it changes relative prices and induces a substitution effect. Recent developments in the theory of the household (particularly by Becker [1965] and Lancaster [1966]) provide a unified framework for handling various aspects of the fertility decision. However, in choosing