Strategic Fertility, Education Choices, and Conflicts in Deeply Divided Societies
63 Pages Posted: 7 Jan 2019
Date Written: December 2018
Abstract
Fertility becomes a strategic choice when having a larger population helps to gain power. Minority groups might find it optimal to promote high fertility among their members - this is known as the "weapon of the womb" argument. If, in addition, parents have to invest resources to educate their children, a higher fertility for strategic motives might reduce their investment. Indonesian census data dispel this view, as minority religious groups do not invest less in education. If anything, they invest more in education, as well as in their number of children. This finding is consistent with human capital being an input to appropriation. Solving for the Nash equilibrium of a game between two groups with two strategic variables, we derive the condition under which the minority group displays a higher investment in both the quantity and quality of children. The material cost of conflict involved through the weapon of the womb mechanism is mitigated when human capital enters the contest function.
Keywords: conflict, Fertility, Human Capital, Indonesia, minorities, Nash equilibrium, population engineering, quality-quantity trade-off
JEL Classification: D74, J13, J15
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation