The Effects of Mortality on Fertility: Population Dynamics after a Natural Disaster

Understanding how mortality and fertility are linked is essential to the study of population dynamics. The fertility response to an unanticipated mortality shock is investigated that resulted from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed large shares of the residents of some Indonesian communities but caused no deaths in neighboring communities. Using population-representative multilevel longitudinal data, a behavioral fertility response to mortality exposure is identified, both at the level of a couple and in the broader community.