Abstract
This thesis addresses the effect of fertility on female empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa. Estimating the impact of fertility on female empowerment is difficult because of endogeneity and omitted variables bias. I use same-sex siblings as an instrumental variable for fertility in 30 Sub-Saharan Africa countries. Female empowerment is measured by household decision making power. This index represent women’s control in her own environment. The measures of household decisions include which of the spouses who usually has the final say in decisions about her health care, major household purchases, daily household purchases, visits to family or relatives and husband earnings. Low participation in household decisions are an indication of limited power, implying that women has an undervalued status in the household and in the family. I find that fertility is negatively linked to female empowerment on two of these household decision measures, namely daily and large purchases. Causal effects implies that women are 12.1 and 13.9 percentage points less likely to participate in decision making regarding daily purchases and large purchases, respectively, when fertility increase. When investigating the effects on high and low gender discriminating countries, the causal effects only remain in the group with relatively high gender discrimination.