Economic Opportunities, Social Change and Fertility Transition in the Eastern Caribbean

该项目审查了加勒比地区不同社会之间人口增长差异的原因。将对圣卢西亚和安提瓜的家庭进行调查，以研究家庭规模大小和规模小的原因，调查问卷已被用于研究巴巴多斯的类似问题。被检验的假设是，当女性在晚年摆脱对子女的经济依赖时，她们会生更少的孩子，这种独立性来自于教育制度和职业结构的变化。这项研究之所以重要，是因为了解人口高增长的原因将有助于我们控制人口增长；人口增长从高到低的一般理论必须结合当地情况进行测试，以发现其优势和劣势。加勒比海诸岛代表着相似但不同社会的天然实验室，在其中检验这一理论。

This project examines the causes for variations in population growth between different societies in the Caribbean. Households in Santa Lucia and Antigua will be surveyed to study the reasons for high and low family sizes,using a survey questionnaire that has been used to study similar issues in Barbados. The hypothesis tested is that women have fewer children when they are freed from financial dependence on their children in their old age, and that this independence comes from changes in the educational sytem and occupational structure. This research is important because understanding the causes of high population growth will help us to control it; and the general theory of the changes from high to low population growth must be tested against local circumstances to discover its strengths and weaknesses. The islands of the Caribbean represent a natural laboratory of similar but different societies in which to test the theory.