Open research questions in Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences
81 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 2,954 Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.
What the literature leaves open
Despite these contributions, our study has several limitations. First, our analysis cannot fully disentangle the effects of state fertility policies from voluntary socioeconomic influences on first birth timing. Although we observe distinct timing patterns across cohorts exposed to different policy regimes, the precise causal mechanisms driving these patterns remain difficult to isolate. Future research could address this limitation by linking fertility histories with local-level policy implementation data or by exploiting regional policy variation to better distinguish policy effects from socioeconomic or cultural factors. Second, our measure of completed fertility is based on the number of living children reported at the time of the interview and excludes respondents without surviving offspring. This approach inevitably conditions fertility outcomes on child survival. Because child mortality declined substantially after the 1950s (Feeney and Yuan, 1994; Zeng et al., 2001; Zhao et al., 2014), this likely results in a modest underestimation of completed fertility for the oldest cohort, who experienced reproduction before the mortality decline. However, socioeconomic and urban–rural differences in child survival were relatively modest for later cohorts (Cai, 2012; Zeng et al., 2002; Zhao et al., 2014), suggesting that survival bias is unlikely to drive major socioeconomic patterns in these cohorts. Nonetheless, older, less educated and rural respondents were somewhat more likely to experience child loss, which may lead us to slightly understate their completed fertility and overstate convergence across groups. Accordingly, our estimates should be interpreted as reflecting gradients in surviving rather than total children. Future research could reconstruct full parity histories or integrate historical mortality data to yield more accurate estimates of completed fertility across cohorts. Third, our conceptualisation of fertility timing focuses exclusively on the age at first birth and does not capture other key dimensions of fertility tempo. Birth spacing, or the interval between successive births, represents an equally important component that our analysis cannot address. This limitation is particularly relevant in the Chinese context, where the later, longer, fewer campaign of the 1970s explicitly regulated birth intervals, and where variation in spacing could have affected completed fertility independently of first birth timing. We also do not examine the age at last birth or the overall duration of the childbearing period, both of which shape fertility outcomes and intergenerational structures. Rural families permitted to have two or more children may have exhibited https://doi.org/10.1553/p-m8bg-h6pj Socioeconomic and urban–rural disparities in delayed first birth 17 different spacing and stopping patterns than urban families, offering additional pathways through which socioeconomic factors may have influenced family size.
Two paths to smaller families: Socioeconomic and urban–rural disparities in delayed first birth in China and implications for an ageing society · 2026 · DOIGlobally, net migra- tion accounted for 45% of urban growth between 2000 and 2020, but its contribution varied widely between cities, concentrating growth in some urban centers while others expanded primarily through natural increase.
As elevated sex ratios have not been previously documented on first-parity children, this may indicate that ETA bans shift sex-selective behavior to earlier parities by placing additional emphasis on having a boy now, before any further restrictions on abortions occur.
This study has several limitations. Its case–control design limits causal inference between identified factors and teenage pregnancy. Data were self-reported, introducing potential recall and social desirability bias. The relatively small sample size and restriction to selected rural areas may limit to broader populations of Bangladesh. generalizability Additionally, unmeasured confounding variables such as cultural norms and partner-related factors could not be fully explored within the study framework.
Although a few studies have examined group-specific trends, hardly any have covered the post-pandemic years-an important step for revealing whether any uptick in 2021 had a lasting impact on fertility structures.
The relationship between reproductive labour and social reproduction warrants further scrutiny, for as we careen through uncertain ecological futures, and as discourses about limited Earth for humans amid environmental crisis and limited funding for future children thicken, the reproductivity of certain women and girls is being tinkered with by experts, governments, and private institutions in new ways.
For the sake of the child: The economisation of reproduction in the Zika public health emergency · 2020 · DOIFuture studies might consider a large sample size and explore more deeply the mechanism between the different disaster events and fertility decisions by using a comparative analysis between regions vulnerable to different extreme weather events and not vulnerable to extreme weather events within Bangladesh, and comparing Bangladesh with other South Asian countries.
Underlying causes and the impacts of disaster events (floods) on fertility decision in rural Bangladesh · 2018 · DOIPerhaps the contradictory findings on the effect of migration on fertility in sub-Saharan Africa (see, Brockerhoff, 1995; Brockerhoff and Yang, 1994; Lee, 1992; Lee and Pol, 1994) may be due to this failure.
Migration and Fertility Behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa : The Case of Ghana* · 2006CONCLUSIONS: The trend toward lower adolescent birthrates and pregnancy rates over the past 25 years is widespread and is occurring across the industrialized world, suggesting that the reasons for this general trend are broader than factors limited to any one country: increased importance of education, increased motivation of young people to achieve higher levels of education and training, and greater centrality of goals other than motherhood and family formation for young women.
have noted similar findings in their Bombay study (1969 :19): It may also be mentioned here that couples educated at the primary level or below have limited knowledge of family planning, and most often sterilization and IUCD are the only methods known (Kale 1965 :28).
A further investigation of differences among five major urban centers yielded the conclusion that improve- ment in literacy, educational and employment status among 35 WINTER 1972 Downloaded by [University of Glasgow] at 10:53 05 January 2015 women may occur in small urban centers as well as in the nation's capital or its largest cities.
The Relationship between Urbanization and the Changing Status of Women in Iran, 1956–1966 · 1972 · DOIStatistical indices of nearly all sorts indicate that today throughout most of the world cultural development is going ahead faster than population growth. This suggests that the Asiatic peoples, and others as well, will acquire modern civilization in time to check their fer- tility and thus achieve an efficient demo- graphic balance, instead of multiplying to the point where such acquisition would be impossible and a stationary but wasteful situation would be made permanent. We are inclined to think of future population increases as formi- Actually, such increases can dable. hardly occur on a purely agricultural basis. They require Westernization. This being true, the prospect that there will be too many people in the sense of too many to support at a higher level of living is not likely.
Whether the sequential life course ideals articulated by these educated young women will materialise into actual behaviours remains uncertain, and warrants longitudinal follow-up.
Abstract Environmental concerns may influence personal fertility decisions and general opinions about childbearing and population dynamics, but research on this topic remains scarce.
Attitudes towards childbearing, population, and the environment: prevalence, correlates, and connections with fertility outcomes in Sweden · 2025 · DOIWomen returning to their natal homes for pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum is common and understudied in South Asia, with important implications for maternal and newborn health policies, as well as data quality and interpretation.
Previous literature has examined whether families that prevent unwanted (female) pregnancies from reaching term provide greater care to the surviving daughters, but it reports mixed results.
Abstract How trade liberalization affects a country's fertility has been verified by some studies, but little is known about how export trade liberalization impacts individual fertility intention.
The impact of trade liberalization on individual fertility intention: Empirical evidence from China · 2022 · DOISon preference is known to influence fertility decisions, but very little is known about the prevalence of son preference in Turkey and its consequences for fertility behaviours.
Little is known about the reproductive behavior of the population in insular Greece because of the lack of reliable and unintermittent time series of vital statistics.
Reproduction in the Archipelago of the Aegean 1920–2016: Long-Term Trends and Recent Upturns · 2021 · DOIA wealth of demographic research has explored the determinants of sex ratios at birth, but few studies have considered the role of foetal loss (spontaneous abortion), in producing feminine sex ratios.
Results suggest that abortion remains an integral component of women's fertility regulation, and that a liberal law alone is insufficient to guarantee access to safe abortion services.
Induced Abortion Incidence and Safety in Rajasthan, India: Evidence that Expansion of Services is Needed · 2020 · DOIThe current provision of childcare services is insufficient to guarantee the equal use of childcare among children of different socioeconomic backgrounds, or to ease the tension between the needs of childcare and job requirements in a family, or to emancipate married women from the domestic sphere.
Childcare policies and services in Hong Kong after the handover: Beyond a feminist critique · 2019 · DOIAlthough Japan has entered a phase of population decline due to decades of low fertility, studies on the determinants of fertility choices among Japanese couples remain sparse.
Men’s participation in childcare and housework and parity progression: a Japanese population-based study · 2018 · DOIGiven inconsistent results in the literature and our null relationship between birth month or season and age at menarche, we doubt that there is any relationship between birth season and age at menarche.
Rather, to set some reasonable bounds on the present research, our attention is limited to the desired quantity of children, as revealed by survey data on the ideal number of children and the parity-specific preference to have no more children.
Most-cited papers in Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences
- Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing: Levels and Trends in Developed Countries · Family Planning Perspectives · 2000 · 299 citations
- The Idea of Demographic Transition and the Study of Fertility Change: A Critical Intellectual History · Population and Development Review · 1993 · 203 citations
- Sex Differentials in Childhood Feeding, Health Care, and Nutritional Status in India · Population and Development Review · 2004 · 161 citations
- Too old to have children? Lessons from natural fertility populations · Human Reproduction · 2014 · 146 citations
- What Causes the Child Penalty? Evidence from Adopting and Same-Sex Couples · Journal of Labor Economics · 2021 · 135 citations
- Individual and Community Aspects of Women's Status and Fertility in Rural Bangladesh · Population Studies · 1994 · 134 citations
- The Puzzle of Falling US Birth Rates since the Great Recession · The Journal of Economic Perspectives · 2022 · 122 citations
- Latest‐Late Fertility? Decline and Resurgence of Late Parenthood Across the Low‐Fertility Countries · Population and Development Review · 2020 · 104 citations
- The Effect(s) of Teen Pregnancy: Reconciling Theory, Methods, and Findings · Demography · 2016 · 96 citations
- Does Schooling Affect Women’s Desired Fertility? Evidence From Malawi, Uganda, and Ethiopia · Demography · 2015 · 95 citations
Most recent work
- Subtle fertility recovery in cohorts who entered the labour market during the deep recession in Japan · Asian Population Studies · 2026
- Impact of Government Girl Child Schemes on Reducing Female Feticide in Maharashtra · International Journal of Creative and Open Research in Engineering and Management · 2026
- Early-term abortion bans and sex selection after Dobbs v Jackson · Journal of Population Economics · 2026
- The Intergenerational Impact of Birth-Control Policies on Fertility: The Role of Norms · The Economic Journal · 2026
- Ecological worldview in China: gender divides and parenthood status · Local Environment · 2026
- Global divergence in urban demographic change and migration patterns · Nature Cities · 2026
- Spatial and Temporal Variation in Total Fertility Rate Across States and Union Territories in India, 2005–2021: Evidence Based on NFHS Data · Journal of Developing Societies · 2026
- Global trends in the compression of childbearing spans, 1950–2025: A new approach to the age distribution of fertility · Journal of Population Research · 2026
- Fertility trajectories of the Roma population in Türkiye: An event history analysis from menarche to fifth birth · Romani Studies · 2026
- Abortion legalization, son preference, and intensified sex selection in Nepal · Review of Economics of the Household · 2026
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