Fertility Theory: Caldwell's Theory of Intergenerational Wealth Flows

Kaplan, Hillard; Bock, John

doi:10.1016/b0-08-043076-7/02174-4

Cited by 16 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Pregnancy loss can be also compounded by poor maternal nutritional status , a heavy workload , a high disease burden due to malaria and other febrile illnesses , and intimate partner violence . A high pregnancy loss probably fuels the high fertility because of the demand for as many live births as possible to ensure that the desired number of children grow into adulthood and provide support during old age .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pregnancy rates and pregnancy loss in Eastern Ethiopia

Assefa

Berhane

Worku

2013

Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pregnancy rates and pregnancy loss in Eastern Ethiopia

Assefa

Berhane

Worku

2013

Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand

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“…25,35,36 The benefits of learning are amplified when they increase future fitness. Investment in development and learning augments children's abilities to exploit the complex human habitat 13,18,37 and social interactions. 38 These skills enhance future adult productivity, which can confer a reproductive advantage.…”

Section: Slow Juvenile Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pooled energy budgets: Resituating human energy ‐allocation trade‐offs

Kramer

Ellison

2010

Evolutionary Anthropology

128

115

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Across taxa, many life-history traits vary as a function of differences in body size.1-5 Among primates, including humans, allometric relationships explain many trends in metabolic, growth, reproductive, and mortality rates.6-8 But humans also deviate from nonhuman primates with respect to other developmental, reproductive, and parenting characteristics. [9][10][11][12][13] Broad relationships between life-history traits and body size assume that energy expended in activity (foraging effort) is proportional to body size, and that energy available for growth and reproduction are equivalent. Because human subsistence and parenting are based on food sharing, and cooperation in labor and childrearing, the ways by which energy is acquired and allocated to alternate expenditures are expanded. We present a modification of the general allocation model to include a mechanism for these energy transfers. Our goal is to develop a framework that incorporates this mechanism and can explain the human life-history paradox; that is, slow juvenile growth and rapid reproduction. We suggest that the central characteristics of human subsistence and energy transfer need to be accounted for in order to more fully appreciate human life-history variability. LIFE-HISTORY APPROACHES TO THE PARADOX OF SLOW GROWTH AND RAPID REPRODUCTIONThe scaling of life-history traits with body size is generally explained by the link between body size and metabolic energy production. However, human life histories also present a paradox. Juvenile growth rates (from weaning to adolescence) are slower than expected for an ape of our size, 11,13,19 but reproductive rates are faster. 20,21 This discordance in the directionality of life-history expectations can be framed in terms of an energetic puzzle. Given the basic life-history assumption that the energy available for growth and reproduction (production function) is equivalent, 16 we need to explain either where the extra energy to fuel faster reproduction comes from or where the missing energy that could fuel faster growth goes, or both. In other words, why don't children grow faster or mothers reproduce more slowly?Charnov and Berrigan's life-history model is both elegant and far-reaching in predicting how and why primate life-history traits vary from those of other mammals. One of its important contributions to hominin evolution is its illumination of the human life-history paradox. Various robust models have proposed explanations for the evolution of life-history traits in relation to mortality schedules and the human life course. 17,18,22,23 Other human life-history models have focused on explaining slow growth, delayed maturity, or fast reproduction.24-29 The pooled energy model presented here is not contrary to these perspectives, but focuses on a unifying mechanism, energy transfers, to account for both slow juvenile growth and fast reproduction within one framework. ARTICLESKaren Kramer is an Associate Professor in the department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Her research with...

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“…Much of my own subsequent research was catalyzed by a series of reviews and critiques of wealth flow theory: Thadani (1978), Cain (1982), Willis (1982), Schultz (1983), Rosenzweig (1988), and Kaplan and Bock (2001). Before analyzing the contributions of others to this debate, I summarize the directions of my research on the subject.…”

Section: My Findings On Wealth Flowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Net Intergenerational Wealth Flows: An Update

Caldwell

2005

Population & Development Review

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Almost 30 years have passed since I introduced the concept of "net intergenerational wealth flows" in a "PDR" essay, "Toward a restatement of demographic transition theory." A great deal of research has been published since then, and accordingly an update is needed. That research suggests the following propositions. Immediately before fertility transition, children's farm labor may not quite offset their consumption, although much depends on how far into adulthood they continue to perform at least some work for their parents. In premodern times children may have paid their way because of lower consumption. Research on the pre-transitional value of children's work produced contradictory results because it examined both hunter-gatherer societies, in which both adults and children worked comparatively few hours, and farming societies, in which both worked longer hours. In pre-transitional societies, the insurance value of children was almost unlimited. For most people in most societies, alternative ways of maintaining savings from the earlier to the later stage of the life cycle first became available only when large-scale investment in children's education was possible. The costs and gains from that investment played a major role in the onset of the fertility transition. Copyright 2005 The Population Council, Inc..

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Fertility Theory: Caldwell's Theory of Intergenerational Wealth Flows

Cited by 16 publications

References 23 publications

Pregnancy rates and pregnancy loss in Eastern Ethiopia

Pregnancy rates and pregnancy loss in Eastern Ethiopia

Pooled energy budgets: Resituating human energy ‐allocation trade‐offs

On Net Intergenerational Wealth Flows: An Update

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