Measuring the Contribution of Each Reproductive Age of Women for the Difference in Mean Age at Last Birth and Mean Age at First Birth: A Methodological Innovation in Fertility Research

Krishna Murthy Ponnapalli, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

A number of studies have been made earlier to estimate indirectly the childbearing indices such as mean reproductive life span. However, no attempt has been made so far to find the contribution of each reproductive age of women to the mean reproductive life span of women. In the present paper we have made an attempt first to derive the childbearing indices indirectly from the only information on age specific fertility rates and the life table approach. Secondly using a decomposition method we tried to find the contribution of each reproductive age of women to the mean reproductive life span of women. The methods used in this study have been illustrated using the single year age specific fertility data of Japan and India. The results of the analysis indicates that the methods used in this paper are of immense use in understanding the fertility transition of both developed and developing countries.