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The mortality-fertility relationship from the economic demography perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2025

Raouf Boucekkine ,
Marwân-al-Qays Bousmah Open the ORCID record for Marwân-al-Qays Bousmah [Opens in a new window]  and
Ullrika Sahlin
Raouf Boucekkine
Affiliation:
Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, Marseille, France raouf.boucekkine@univ-amu.fr
Marwân-al-Qays Bousmah*
Affiliation:
Ined, National Institute for Demographic Studies, Aubervilliers, France marwan-al-qays.bousmah@ined.fr Université Paris Cité and Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, IRD, Inserm, Ceped, F-75006 Paris, France
Ullrika Sahlin
Affiliation:
Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden ullrika.sahlin@cec.lu.se
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

While Ellis, Reid, and Kramer’s life history framework is convincing in explaining individual variation in life history strategies, it has certain limitations, which we discuss – drawing notably on the economic theory of fertility choice. In particular, we suggest that ambient cues to extrinsic mortality alone are not sufficient to trigger sustained net fertility decline.

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Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e101
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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