Socioeconomic Determinants of Total Fertility Rate at an Aggregate Level in Iran: An Application of ARDL

Regarding importance of studies on different dimensions of total fertility rate (TFR), this study investigates the socioeconomic determinants of TFR at an aggregate level and identifies their impacts on TFR variations in Iran. By introducing four economic, social, cultural and health components, this paper tests the effects on dependent variable (TFR) using an auto-regressive distributed lags (ARDL) model and error correction mechanism (ECM). Results show that female life expectancy index not only had positive and significant relationship with TFR in several specifications, but also its coefficient was higher than the other coefficients. In addition, the relationships between TFR and other variables, except for GDP per capita, were expectedly significant in dynamic models. The speed of adjustment was very slow, and short-run fluctuations approached long-run equilibrium gradually with long lags. Regarding the effectiveness of different components, it can be said that health component is prior to cultural and social factors, and the economic dimension gets the final rank. Thus, an emphasis on fertility health, especially encourage to marry in marriage ages through social protection schemes could help population dynamism and to enhance the TFR more than substitution rate.