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Studying the Impact of Religion on Fertility in Nineteenth-Century Canada

The Use of Direct Measures and Proxy Variables

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Michael D. Haan
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Abstract

A beta version of the machine-readable 1881 census of Canada is used to assess the efficacy of two proxy variables used to predict fertility: (1) the share of church seats held by various church denominations in an areal unit and (2) the proportion of children with biblical names. Weak evidence is found for both measures, although the article questions whether these relationships can be interpreted as evidence for the importance of religious liberalization as a factor in reducing fertility.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , Fall 2005 , pp. 373 - 411
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2005 

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Footnotes

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In addition to comments from the reviewers and the editor, this essay has benefited greatly from the help (in various forms) of Dale Ballucci, Louis Duchesne, Eric Fong, J. David Hacker, Randy Hart, Lesley Kenny, John Myles, Serena Pattaro, Daniel Scott Smith, and the audiences at the 2003 Social Science History Association annual meeting and the 2002 University of Essex Summer School Speaker Series. Special thanks go to Lisa Dillon for providing access to beta versions of the 1881 Canadian census.

References

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