1. Objectifs

Intentions :
Cette thèse par articles est composée de trois articles. Le premier porte sur le contrôle de la fertilité en Angleterre, en France et au Québec avant la transition démographique (processus par lequel les taux de mortalité et de natalité d’une population passent d’élevés à faibles). Le deuxième article porte plus spécifiquement sur la fertilité au Québec avant la transition démographique et le troisième aborde la question des mariages et la mobilité sociale et économique des femmes au Québec.

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
In the first article, «[t]he data for analysis are multiple, independently constructed family history databases. The Families of England (FOE) database for England, the Henry data for France, the CAMPOP data for England, and the Quebec IMPQ (l’Infrastructure intégrée des microdonnées historiques de la population québécoise) database.» (p. 15) The second study «estimates the quantity-quality trade-off using the IMPQ vital records from 1620–1849. Over 8,000 pairs of twins, an unusually large sample for a historical study, provide a source of exogenous variation in family sizes.» (p. 36-37) The third study uses «the IMPQ data from Quebec 1800–1970 […].» (p. 58)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

The first study finds that «[t]here is good evidence that at least in some Western European and Western European derived populations — England, France, and Quebec — there was a period where families exercised no parity-dependent fertility control within marriage for at least the great majority of the population.» (p. 28) In Québec, «child quantity has a statistically significant yet very small negative effect on child quality.» (p. 30) The second article shows that, «[i]n pre-demographic transition Quebec, the natural experiment of twins provides evidence that there was a small trade-off between family size and the average human capital of children. […] Using multigenerational linkages, [the author] shows that although the effect of an increase in family sizes seems to be strongly inherited, the magnitude of the trade-off is too small to be of major economic significance.» (p. 54) In the third article, the author shows that marriage assortment «mattered because, despite severe legal and economic disadvantages, women played a major role in mobility and marriage. Overlooking women would leave any story of assortative marriage, intergenerational mobility, or inequality incomplete.» (p. 84)