Effect of Economic Growth on Total Fertility Rate in Iran (1984-2013)

Fertility is as complex topics which is influenced by various economic, cultural, and political factors. Also, family's decisions for childbearing is highly dependent on economic conditions and on the other hand, children's growth and entering to the market affect economy. A country like Iran with a large share of young population naturally experiences higher rates of fertility and lower rates of mortality. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to fertility and its related issues in Iran. So, this study was performed with aim to evaluate the effect of economic growth on total fertility rate in Iran.
Time series data related to economic growth and fertility rate in Iran was extracted from World Bank Data during 1984 to 2013. Then we applied Johansen Co-integration Test and Vector Error Correction Model to estimate the proposed model.
Estimation of the proposed model showed that during these years, 1% increase in economic growth rate has led to approximately 0.01% decrease in total fertility rate in the next period and 0.01% decrease in total fertility rate in the next two period.
The economic growth has a negatively significant impact on total fertility rate in Iran during the observation period.