Impact of Women’s Education Level on Fertility Rate: Evidence from

Abstract

The paper examines the nexus between the women’s education level and fertility rate in Kyrgyzstan from 2010 until 2012. The main theory on which this paper bases is Demographic Transition Theory. We assume that Central Asian countries are on the third stage of their demographic transition. Consequently, on this stage, we have low mortality rate and slightly decreasing fertility rate. One of the reasons could be the strengthening the role of females in society. Consequently, we decided to check weather this relationship between fertility rate and women’s education level corresponds to the theory. We observe that in Kyrgyzstan fertility rate and women’s education level for 2010 until 2012 have negative relationship, which means that increasing in years of education decreases the number of children. The research uses secondary data from Life in Kyrgyzstan Survey for 2010, 2011 and 2012. The estimation method is Instrumental Variable.