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Asia's “Miracle” Economies . By Jon Woronoff. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1986. 404 pp. $35.00 (cloth); $15.95 (paper).

For example, the Philippine study finds little fertility difference between women who stay home and those who work outside the home, whether in factories, as shop clerks, or as vendors. The intermediate variables considered were contraceptive use and the length, if any, of breastfeeding. It is argued that the higher incidence of breastfeeding among women at home depresses their fertility, whereas the lack of breastfeeding among factory workers offsets any influence of role incompatibility between such work and family size. The Philippine authors themselves qualify the implications of these results but are pleased to provide a cogent reason for the widespread lack of correlation in the developing areas between women's work and lowered fertility. In contrast, a study of an irrigation project in northeast Thailand did not find any significance in breastfeeding patterns. The India study documents the economic value of children by showing that parents who send their children to school must forgo some four hours of work daily by each of their daughters and sons; fewer girls attend school, particularly after age twelve. Since girls help in household survival tasks, the authors recommend rural development projects specifically designed to reduce the drudgery of food preparation and the fetching of water and fuel. Such actions would not only reduce the economic value of girls but also have long-term effects since the education of women reduces their fertility. Supporting the recommendations in the India study are the findings in both Sri Lanka and Thailand that rural electrification lowers fertility because of reduced demand for child labor. Although in Thailand electrification also increases the employment of both men and women in nonagricultural occupations, it has this impact only on males in Sri Lanka. Yet it is female employment in nonagricultural occupations that correlates with reduced fertility. Other aspects of this rural development project in Sri Lanka increased women's work, primarily in agriculture, but did not affect fertility. The authors of this study suggest that the critical variable affecting fertility is income-derived and recommend a policy of more equitable pay as a way to increase family planning and reduce birth rates. This book is a mine of information on both substantive and methodological issues. As a seminal study, it should be in the libraries of universities and of scholars. It is not a course book but a reference work, an important grounding for further research into the challenging task of cause and effect in the development process.