Fertility and Childlessness in the United States

Baudin, Thomas;De la Croix, David;Gobbi, Paula Eugenia
(2015) The American Economic Review — Vol. 105, n° 6, p. 1852-1882 (2015)

Files

FertilityandchildlessnessintheUS.pdf
  • Restricted Access
  • Adobe PDF
  • 4.82 MB
Request a copy

Details

Authors
  • Baudin, ThomasUCLouvain
    Author
  • De la Croix, DavidUCLouvain
    Author
  • Gobbi, Paula EugeniaUCLouvain
    Author
Abstract
We develop a theory of fertility, distinguishing its intensive margin from its extensive margin. The deep parameters are identified using facts from the 1990 US Census: (i) fertility of mothers decreases with education; (ii) childlessness exhibits a U-shaped relationship with education; (iii) the relationship between marriage rates and education is hump-shaped for women and increasing for men. We estimate that 2.5 percent of women were childless because of poverty and 8.1 percent because of high opportunity cost of childrearing. Over time, historical trends in total factor productivity and in education led to a U-shaped response in childlessness rates while fertility of mothers decreased
Affiliations

Citations

  • APA
  • Chicago
  • FWB

Baudin, T., De la Croix, D., & Gobbi, P. E. (2015). Fertility and Childlessness in the United States. The American Economic Review, 105(6), 1852-1882. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20120926 (Original work published 2015)