Eloundou-Enyegue summarizes all the case studies presented in the volume. The ambiguity in the education-fertility discourse arises largely from uneven developments in policy, theory, methodology and empirical evidence. The complexities uncovered by empirical evidence can not be fully explained because of the lag in theoretical development. Education and fertility may not affect one another in a casual sense. Rather, both education and fertility decisions may be simultaneous and interdependent. A core argument is that the cost of education of future children may be the factor in¯uencing fertility; cognitive modernization and social in¯uences may not be as strong determinants of the education-fertility link. This would be viewed as controversial by many.
The major policy recommendations of the book highlight the need to raise levels of female enrolment and change the ideological climate in developing countries. With regard to theory, the challenge is to develop quantitative and contextual theories that still enable quantitative predictions regarding the mutual effects of education and fertility while recognizing the in¯uence of socioeconomic factors. From the perspective of methodology, there is a need to address the endogeneity issues and to collect panel data of schooling histories. At issue are the twin dif®culties of interpretation and generalization. The ideas in the book are well thought-out and are supported with convincing arguments, with informed analysis and discussion of empirical studies, highlighting the many dif®culties in this research ®eld. The book would be useful for postgraduate students and researchers interested in the issue of education and fertility. The volume is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the associations between education and fertility.