Poverty, fertility preferences and family planning practice in the Philippines

Aniceto C. Orbeta, Philippine Insitute for Development Studies

This paper looks at the interaction of poverty, fertility preferences and family planning practice in the Philippines using the series of nationally representative Family Planning Surveys conducted annually since 1999 augmented by census and other survey data. Its contribution lies on providing recent and nationally representative empirical evidence on the long running but largely unresolved debate in the country on the relationship of demographic processes and outcomes and socioeconomic status. A detailed characterization of the relationships was done using cross tabulation analyses. In addition, and more importantly, a recursive qualitative response model was estimated to identify the differential determinants of fertility preferences and family planning practice across socioeconomic groupings. The estimation result indicates that the number of children among the poor is more the result of poorer contractive practice rather than higher demand for children.