110 sats \ 10 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 30 Sep \ parent \ on: Yes, Car Seat Laws Reduce the Birth Rate econ
It depends on the field. Fertility research is about anything that impacts birthrates. That is different than specifically medical research into fertility.
I once had a student who said she was offended when I said something along the lines of "The data shows that employed women have lower fertility rates."
As I probed into her question, I realized that when regular people hear the word
fertility, they think of the ability to have children. But when social scientists hear it, they think the act of having children, whether by choice or otherwise.So, just an interesting note for those of us "in the profession" that we can get so caught up in our own jargon that we forget how it sounds to outsiders.
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Considering some of the other ways economists describe people, that's an interesting one to get offended over.
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Which is fine, but this is how the word is used in research.
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Nope, that's just the usage you're familiar with.
From Wikipedia: "Fertility refers to the actual production of offspring, rather than the physical capability to reproduce, which is termed fecundity."
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Colloquial usage often differs slightly from technical and leads to misunderstandings.