[Fertility decline and changes in proximate determinants in Latin America and the Caribbean]

"The objective of this paper is to discuss the role that three of the proximate determinants of fertility (marriage, contraception and post-partum insusceptibility) have played in fertility change in Latin America and the Caribbean. First we look at issues of data availability and comparability on measures of the proximate determinants from retrospective surveys. Most of the data utilized come from the World Fertility Survey (WFS) and the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) projects. Second, we present results from the most widely applied model for assessing the impact that these proximate determinants have on fertility, that of Bongaarts....Finally, we compare the results from the application of the Bongaarts model with those from an alternative method proposed by Moreno. Both models show that increased use of contraception is by far the most important reason for fertility decline, with marriage and post-partum insusceptibility making much smaller contributions. However, the second model suggests that the role of the marriage and post-partum insusceptibility factors is much smaller than is shown by the Bongaarts model." (SUMMARY IN ENG)