In recent times, several economists have attempted to develop economic or socio-economic theories to explain how decisions on the number of children are made by couples.
Economic theories of fertility are based on the assumption that decisions regarding family size are influenced mainly by economic considerations, and therefore these theories are built within the micro-economic framework.
It may thus be seen that the mould of the economic theories of fertility is very different from that of the social theories of fertility. While the interest of the population phenomenal only recent origin, many weighty contributions have been made to the economic interpretation of fertility during the 1960s and 1970s.