Southeast Asia Fertility Project

An Introduction to the Southeast Asia Fertility Program

The Southeast Asia Fertility Project is a study of demographic transitions in Southeast Asia with a primary focus on the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. The project, a long-term collaborative research between Charles Hirschman at the University of Washington and colleagues in each country, began in the mid 1980s with data from the 1970 and 1980 round of population censuses. Data from the 1990 round of population censuses have been added to the project data archive. The central feature of this study is a multilevel modeling strategy that incorporates the contextual characteristics of provinces in addition to individual-level characteristics as determinants of fertility levels and fertility change. The contextual variables include empirical indicators of the status of women, the economic roles of children, infant mortality, and marriage patterns. The project has received grant support from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The project data archive contains the original census files, the primary file extracts, codebooks, and the computer programs used to create and process the data files. The codebooks and data documentation can be directly accessed (by Adobe Acrobat), but researchers must request permission from the statistical agencies in each country before receiving access to the census data files.

Vasin Knoware, Inc