Effects of Education on Fertility over Time in a Sharecropping Italian Community, 1820-1960

Marco Breschi, Università degli Studi di Sassari
Alessio Fornasin, University of Udine
Matteo Manfredini, University of Parma

The paper investigates the relationship between education and fertility in a rural Italian community. The study compares the effects of education in two different periods – mid19th century and the first half of the 20th century – using different sources, the census-like religious books of Status Animarum and the Italian census of 1961. The former is used in association with vital registers of baptisms, burials, and marriages, while the latter is a peculiar census that contains a reconstruction of the reproductive histories of all resident women. Therefore, both sources will allow us to conduct individual-level analyses. In this regard, we will be able to assess the role of education in shaping reproductive behaviors not only during the demographic transition but also in a pre-transitional society.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 5. EAP and beyond