What is holding you back from giving birth? An investigation of the proximate factors affecting the intention to give birth in Singapore

• Main Authors: Tan, Siok Ling, Tee, Siew Lee, Lau, Vivian Shi Ni, Yu, Jianfei
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology::Family, marriage and women; DRNTU::Social sciences::Economic theory
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/51920
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this paper, we have investigated the proximate factors influencing fertility intentions in Singapore. We have used fertility intentions to capture the responses of the full population, instead of the total fertility rate (TFR) which only represents the sub-population. Gary Becker's economic theory of fertility forms the theoretical basis of our research. Data used in our analysis was from surveys conducted among Singaporean married couples. We have used three econometric models: ordinary least squares, binary logistic regression and probit regression to estimate the effect of various factors. The regression results obtained from our sample have shown that the effects of factors identified in Singapore's context are consistent with prior studies in other countries.