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Introduction
With the end of nearly 70 years of socialism, Mongolia experienced striking changes in its period fertility rates. The total fertility rate (TFR) dropped from 4.57 children per woman in 1989 just before the transition to democracy and market economy to 2.53 in 1993 and reached 1.95 children per woman in 2005 (National Statistical Office of Mongolia & UNFPA, 2004, p. 45; 2006, p. 78). This decline, as impressive it is (the TFR reduced by 44.7% over five years between 1989 and 1993), received only limited analysis in the demographic literature (Neupert, 1994, 1996; Aassve & Gereltuya, 2002; Gereltuya et al., 2007; Gereltuya, 2008). These studies have linked the dramatic recent fertility decline to the economic and social transition that took place in the early 1990s. The dislocation of the centrally planned economy and the transition to democracy and market economy in Mongolia gave couples a feeling of insecurity and uncertainty about the future. Facing a complete redefinition of their daily life (economic and financial difficulties, but also sudden openness of society), people changed and adapted their fertility behaviour to the new circumstances (Spoorenberg, in press). However, these studies have also shown that the fertility decline should not be seen solely as the byproduct of the transition. Indeed, the onset of fertility decline arose during the 1970s and seems to coincide with the relaxation of the pro-natalist policy. The transition to democracy and market economy in 1990 acted more as a catalyst for the ongoing fertility changes.
As in most socialist countries, population was considered a central variable in the planning and development of the Mongolian economy. However, it was only with the third Five-Year Plan (1961-65) that official and explicit pro-natalist policies were implemented in Mongolia. Child, maternal and couple allowances were allocated to support and promote fertility and large families. At the same time, contraception, sterilization and abortion were prohibited or restricted only to medical cases. As a result, with 7-8 children per woman in the 1960s to early 1970s, Mongolian fertility was high. Whether the fertility and family supports and incentives have maintained fertility at artificially high levels is hard to assess. But the simultaneity between the relaxation of the pro-natalist policy and the...