Evaluating Fertility Intentions and Behavior: Towards a New Behavioral Model

Amal Harrati, University of California, Berkeley

The first purpose of this paper is to create a systematic and longitudinal study of fertility intent and behavior by tracking the same women over the course of their entire reproductive life. My aim is to replicate and update the methods and data from Quesnel-Vallee and Morgan (2004) in order to accomplish two things: first, track instability of fertility intentions for individuals across the life course, and secondly, quantify the extent to which stated fertility intention and realized parity are discordant. Using the results of this analysis, I then propose a series of testable hypotheses using theories from the field of Psychology and Economics that will address this evidence, in hopes to eventually create a better model of fertility behavior.