Low, Bobbi S., Carl P. Simon, and Kermyt G. Anderson. 2003. The biodemography of modern women: Tradeoffs when resources become limiting. In The Biodemography of Fertility, J. Rodgers and H.P. Kohler, eds., pp. 105-134. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Life history theory
postulates
tradeoffs of current versus future reproduction; in both developed and
developing nations today, women face evolutionarily novel versions of
these
tradeoffs. Here we model: [1] the general issues of tradeoffs of
education, work, and current fertility; [2] some specific examples
(e.g.,
what increase in fertility will compensate for specified delays of age
at first birth under given conditions). Finally, we model a
largely-unrecognized
issue. Demographic transitions of the past have been
characterized
by decreases in fertility accompanied by (sometimes quite large)
increases
in per capita investment in offspring. The Rio Conference and its
follow-up highlighted the conflicts between low-fertility,
high-consumption,
versus high-fertility, lower consumption strategies – yet we have few
ways
to make testable predictions about future conflicts. We use a
nonlinear
dynamic model to explore population effects when short generation time
strategists, versus delayed-reproduction-resource-acquirers, respond
differently
to impending resource constraints.
Paper
Back
to Papers and Publications
Last modified: 05-30-03
by Kermyt G. Anderson