World Development Report 1984

Consequences for parents poorer parents on average. But in Nigeria most
children contemplating secondary school would
Despite the apparent advantages of many chil- not come from very poor households, so family
dren, it is not clear that, from a strictly economic size probably has some independent influence on
point of view, parents gain. Children may end up educational performance.
costing parents more than they expected. In some In developing countries, a disproportionate
countries girls may require a dowry and thus be an share of children grow up in large families that are
economic burden. For households close to subsis- least able to take advantage of increased educatence
levels, food, clothing, and housing for chil- tional opportunities and health services. In Brazil
dren may be a burden; such costs are in fact the more than 60 percent of all children live in the
chief concern parents voice, even in the poorest poorest 40 percent of households, households
settings, when asked about the disadvantages of which between them have just 10 percent of total
having children. How much of an economic gain income. In Malaysia and Thailand about half of all
children provide may depend on circumstances children live in households that receive just 15 perthat
parents cannot easily predict-whether they cent of total income. In Colombia and Malaysia in
gain or lose access to land, whether their children 1974, government subsidies for education and
are healthy, whether they have the right balance of health were approximately equal across housesons
and daughters. Even old-age support is not holds. But because fewer children lived in rich
guaranteed. Some children do not survive; daugh- households, subsidies per child were twice as
ters who marry may move to another village; sons great for children in the richest fifth of households
who go far to find work may be less supportive as for those in the poorest. Evidence from urban
than was hoped. Children willing and able to help areas in Colombia also shows that parents themmay
themselves face difficulties in finding well- selves, at all income and education levels, spend
paying work. So although parents can reasonably less on each child's education once there are more
hope to be better off by having many children, in than four children. Thus children from large famithe
end some may not be. lies receive less from both public and private
spending on education.
Consequences for children In general, children have the most to gain from
family income spent on health and education. Yet
Even when parents seem to gain from large fami- family budget studies consistently show that biglies,
children may lose. This is obviously true ger families spend proportionately more on food.
when births are closely spaced; the resulting harm Even then they may not avoid malnutrition: in one
to the health and nutrition of mothers can cause Colombian town studied, malnutrition in prelow
birth weight, early weaning, and poor health school children was directly related to the number
of children in the critical early years. Older chil- of children in the family. Of course, high fertility
dren may also be handicapped. Even in developed may not be the direct cause of malnutrition; low
countries, studies show that children in large fami- income might be responsible for both high fertility
lies and those born close together tend to be physi- and malnutrition. In either case, however, children
cally and intellectually inferior to other children. from large, poor families are clearly disadvan-
For middle-class families in the United Kingdom taged.
and Czechoslovakia, where food is abundant, the So early difficulties in providing enough good
number of children does not affect their physical food interact with later difficulties in supporting
growth. But in poor families, children with many schooling. As will be shown in Chapter 6, those
siblings tend to be smaller. In France, the United who receive less schooling will, as adults, tend to
States, and the Netherlands, a large number of have more children than parents who had more
children in the family has a negative effect on class- schooling. From one generation to the next, an
room performance and test scores. unequal distribution of income is caused by and
The same pattern is found in developing coun- contributes to an unequal distribution of opportutries.
In Nigeria, among a sample of children tak- nities and skills, as large family size and low
ing the secondary school entrance exam, children investments in children reinforce each other.
from large families scored systematically lower If parents have many children in the hope of
than those from small families. In both sets of economic gain, the first step in reducing fertility is
countries, some of this effect may be due to chil- to relieve their poverty and uncertainty about their
dren from large families having less educated or own future. In this sense, the persistence of high
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