While the question of how human populations are regulated lies at the core of
demography as a scientific discipline, there is relatively little research on the topic. In
part, this state of the field reflects the trend that, following the gradual disenchantment
with the grand paradigm of the demographic transition theory, demographers have
increasingly specialize themselves in either one of the components of population change
(fertility, mortality, and migration). The question of population regulation, on the
contrary, lies in understanding the internal and external linkages between these
components.
Sporadic attempts to precisely document mortality influences on fertility have
generated more doubts than evidence about any such direct relationships (e.g., Preston
1978; Montgomery & Cohen 1998; Palloni & Rafalimanana 1999). A few of the recent
reviews on the state of the fertility transitions, however, have emphasized the role of
mortality declines in fertility change (e.g., Hirschman 1994; Mason 1997; Cleland 2000),
and brought back Davis’ (1963) theory of multiphasic demographic response.