RESUMO
PIP: This study was undertaken to assess the influence of socioeconomic factors on fertility behavior in the rural Punjab, an area where a broad based rural development strategy has led to rapid socioeconomic change in the past 1 1/2 decades. 350 ever married women and their husbands from rural areas of Amritsar, Punjab, were interviewed in 1977. The number of births was interpreted as a linear function of 9 independent variables: husband's and wife's education, per capita calorie intake, per capita housing use, husband's caste, profession, per capita income, number of years married, and husband's and wife's ages at marriage. Average years of education of husbands was 4 years, while among wives it was 2 years. The average monthly per capita income of Rs. 146 and average per capita calorie intake of 2784 were significantly above the national averages. Average age at marriage was just over 22 for males and just over 19 for females. The average number of births/couple was 5. Husband's education greater than 10 years and wife's education greater than 8 years maximized the fit and were used in the equations. Because of the strong correlation between husband's education and per capita income, 2 alternative regressions were run, 1 with the education and 1 with the income variable. In the 1st regression, the coefficients for husband's education, wife's education, per capita calorie intake, number of married years, and husband's age at marriage were significant at the 1% level, the coefficient for wife's age at marriage was significant at the 5% level, and that for caste was significant at the 10% level. The F value was 58.75 and over 62% of the variation in the number of births was explained by the independent variables. The coefficients in the 2nd equation were also significant except that for per capita income. The coefficient for housing factors, which was not significant in the 1st equation, was significant at the 5% level. Per capita calorie intake was the most important single variable; it was estimated that an 11% increase in the per capita calorie intake would lead to about a 33% decline in births.^ieng
