ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 carefully analyzes and critiques studies on the underreporting of births and fertility rate estimates. This is done by first pointing out the common bias in the methodologies, and then by showing the weakness in data and faults in methods that led to unreliable or fundamentally wrong findings. These studies and findings have been accepted by government agencies and were widely propagated; therefore they are immensely popular but are also tremendously misleading. While some issues have been recognized, others have not been clarified or corrected, and are still being considered as classic studies to be followed and replicated.
