How Does Family Planning Promote Development? : Evidence from a Social Experiment

Family planning programs may have long-run consequences for families and economic development, in addition to fertility reduction, but these consequences have not been adequately assessed. Malthus foresaw that slowing population growth would increase wages. The UN 1994 Population Conference in Cairo concluded that family planning enhanced women’s health and empowerment, which were also objectives of development. Evidence from a long-run social experiment in family planning and maternal and child health in Matlab, Bangladesh is examined here. The family planning program is associated with a 10-15 percent decrease in fertility and population growth for two decades, and with an increase in adult women’s wages by a third, but it had no apparent effect on the wages of youth or male adults. Child survival, child schooling, and women’s and daughter’s health (BMI) improved relatively in program villages, and physical household assets were 25 percent larger in program villages, consistent with hypothesized intertemporal and intergenerational behavioral mechanisms.