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Explaining International Fertility Differences

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Author Info

  • Rodolfo E. Manuelli

    (Department of Economics, Washington University in St. Louis.)

  • Ananth Seshadri

    (Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison.)

Abstract

Why do fertility rates vary so much across countries? Why are European fertility rates so much lower than American fertility rates? To answer these questions we extend the Barro-Becker framework to incorporate the decision to accumulate human capital (which determines earnings) and health capital (which determines life span). We find that cross-country differences in productivity and taxes go a long way toward explaining the observed differences in fertility and mortality. (c) 2009 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology..

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File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/qjec.2009.124.2.771
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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by MIT Press in its journal Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Volume (Year): 124 (2009)
Issue (Month): 2 (May)
Pages: 771-807

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Handle: RePEc:tpr:qjecon:v:124:y:2009:i:2:p:771-807

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References

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Francesco C. Billari, 2009. "What explains fertility? Evidence from Italian pension reforms," 2009 Meeting Papers 807, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  2. Cordoba, Juan Carlos & Ripoll, Marla, 2011. "A Contribution to the Economic Theory of Fertility," Staff General Research Papers 33899, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
  3. Steven Lugauer & Nelson Mark, 2010. "Demographic Patterns and Household Saving in China," Working Papers 007, University of Notre Dame, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2012.
  4. Larry E. Jones & Alice Schoonbroodt, 2010. "Baby Busts and Baby Booms: The Fertility Response to Shocks in Dynastic Models," NBER Working Papers 16596, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Larry E. Jones & Alice Schoonbroodt & Michèle Tertilt, 2010. "Fertility Theories: Can They Explain the Negative Fertility-Income Relationship?," NBER Chapters, in: Demography and the Economy, pages 43-100 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Cordoba, Juan Carlos, 2012. "Children and the Wealth of Nations," Staff General Research Papers 34989, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
  7. Bick, Alexander, 2010. "The quantitative role of child care for female labor force participation and fertility," MPRA Paper 25474, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  8. Bellido, Héctor & Marcén, Miriam, 2011. "Divorce laws and fertility decisions," MPRA Paper 30243, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  9. Vandenbroucke, Guillaume, 2011. "Optimal fertility during World War I," MPRA Paper 35709, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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