Fertility Transitions along the Extensive and Intensive Margins
- (pp. 3701-24)
Abstract
By allowing for an extensive margin in the standard quantity-quality model, we generate new insights into fertility transitions. We test the model on Southern black women a ected by a large-scale school construction program. Consistent with our model, women facing improved schooling opportunities for their children were more likely to have at least one child but chose to have smaller families overall. By contrast, women who themselves obtained more schooling due to the program delayed childbearing along both the extensive and intensive margins and entered higher quality occupations, consistent with education raising opportunity costs of child rearing.Citation
Aaronson, Daniel, Fabian Lange, and Bhashkar Mazumder. 2014. "Fertility Transitions along the Extensive and Intensive Margins." American Economic Review, 104 (11): 3701-24. DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.11.3701Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I20 Education and Research Institutions: General
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity