The relationship between national income, women's education and fertility

Među zemljama postoje razlike u razinama fertiliteta, a iz literature je poznato kako postoji više čimbenika o kojima ovisi razina fertiliteta. Glavni cilj ovog rada je istražiti povezanost razine fertiliteta s nacionalnim dohotkom i obrazovanjem žena. U tu svrhu su preuzeti podaci za 168 zemalja za 2019. godinu o totalnoj stopi fertiliteta, bruto nacionalnom dohotku per capita, prosječnim godinama obrazovanja žena, udjelu žena u radnoj snazi i smrtnosti dojenčadi. Svi su podaci preuzeti sa službenih stranica World Bank i Human Development Reports. Provedena je analiza koja je započela jednostavnom deskriptivnom statistikom, a zatim je procijenjeno više regresijskih modela. Prva dva modela pojedinačno ispituju povezanost s fertiliteta s nacionalnim dohotkom i s obrazovanjem žena. U treći model nacionalni dohodak i obrazovanje žena uvršteni su zajedno. U sljedećem koraku u model su uvrštene smrtnost dojenčadi i udio žena u radnoj snazi. Konačno, ispitana je i interakcija između nacionalnog dohotka i obrazovanja žena. U skladu s očekivanjima, rezultati su pokazali negativnu povezanost između fertiliteta i dohotka, kao i između fertiliteta i obrazovanja žena. Uvođenjem obrazovanja žena u regresijski model s dohotkom oslabila je negativna veza između dohotka i fertiliteta i dohodak je postao statistički nesignifikantan. Povezanost fertiliteta s dohotkom dodatno je oslabila uvođenjem ostalih varijabli. To sugerira da je negativna povezanost fertiliteta s dohotkom odraz drugih čimbenika koji koreliraju s dohotkom. Također, pronađena je signifikantna interakcija između dohotka i obrazovanja žena u učinku na fertilitet, iz koje je vidljivo da je veza fertiliteta s obrazovanjem žena slabija u zemljama s većim dohotkom.There are differences in fertility levels between countries, and it is known according to the literature that there are several factors on which the fertility rate depends. The main goal of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between the level of fertility, national income and women's education. For this purpose, data for 168 countries for the year 2019 was used. The data comprised the total fertility rate, gross national income per capita, mean years of schooling of women, women's labor force participation and infant mortality. All data was taken from the official websites of the World Bank and Human Development Reports. An analysis was performed that started with simple descriptive statistics, following which several regression models were estimated. The first two models examined the relationship between fertility and national income and women's education individually. In the third model, national income and women's education were included together. In the next step, infant mortality and women's labor force participation were added to the model. Finally, the interaction between national income and women's education was examined. In line with the expectations, the results showed a negative relationship between fertility and income, as well as between fertility and women's education. By introducing women's education into the regression model with income, the negative relationship between income and fertility weakened and income became statistically insignificant. The link between fertility and income was further weakened by the introduction of other variables. This suggests that the negative relationship between fertility and income is a reflection of other factors that correlate with income. Also, a significant interaction was found between income and women's education in the effect on fertility, from which it is evident that the relationship between fertility and women's education is weaker in countries with higher income