Education Elasticities of Young Women Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa: Insights from Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe

Although the relationship between education and fertility is well established, an understanding of young women's fertility responses to education over time is needed to enhance a critical appraisal of education elasticities of fertility. This study thus comparatively investigates education effects on fertility in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Multivariate fixed effects logistic regression and direct decomposition methods were applied to Demographic and Health Survey data between 1999 and 2011. Results showed that declines in youth fertility in Ethiopia and Rwanda were driven by decrease in fertility rates of those with primary education but in the Zimbabwe youth fertility changes were driven by those with secondary or higher educational attainment. We conclude that education elasticities of fertility are not constant but vary by country and stage of fertility transition. Countries that are more advanced in fertility transition therefore need to place focus on enhancing post-secondary education to sustain fertility transition.