ABSTRACT
Exploration and development continues apace on the standard neoclassical economics model of utility maximisation, and its derived demand functions, for use in the field of fertility [ Willis, 1973; Becker and Lewis, 1973 ]. 1 Critics have not been lacking. Inter alia they point to the sociological insensitivity of the model, [ Blake, 1968; Ryder, 1973 ]. This is useful criticism; it has led economists to broaden the coverage of their model, to include interdependent utilities for example [ Becker, 1974 ]. The present essay continues in the same spirit, for the writer finds the standard utility model intuitively appealing as an explanation of human behaviour; what is wrong, it seems, is what usually goes into the utility function. The arguments are typically consumption and leisure, or some variations thereon. In the present paper far more emphasis is placed on a less tangible socio-psychological variable. The analysis is conducted in the context of a developing country and its society. The implications of including the socio-psychological variable for the speed of fertility decline are delineated at the micro level, and at an intermediate level of aggregation.
