The Changing Significance of Education for Fertility Inequality in Cameroon (1991-2011)

Abstract

This thesis examines the changing significance of education for fertility inequality in Cameroon. It uses data from demographic and health surveys from 1991 to 2011 and a mix of linear regression and decomposition analysis to identify the factors contributing most strongly to the changes in inequalities in Cameroon, with a specific focus on the contribution of composition and behavioral effects. The findings show a rise in fertility inequality during the study period, with an increasing concentration of births among women of lower levels of schooling. The results from the decomposition analysis suggest that the main driver of this growing inequality is behavioral differentiation. Importantly, the study highlights both the quantitative and the qualitative effects of education (the magnitude and the pathways through which it contributes to inequality). Quantitatively, the contribution of education to reproductive inequalities increases overtime. Qualitatively, the contribution shifts from mainly behavioral effect to predominantly compositional mechanisms. The study concludes by a discussion of the implications of this rising fertility inequality on prospects of demographic dividend in Cameroon.