A Theory of Child Adoption
Abstract
Women can bear own children or adopt them. Extending economic theories of fertility, we provide a first theoretical treatment of the demand for adoption. We show that the propensity to adopt a child increases in the degree of own altruism, infertility, relatedness to the child, costs of own child birth, and any adoption-specific monetary return that is received net of the costs of adopting the child. Our model makes several testable predictions which receive empirical support. These include a higher propensity to adopt among infertile adults, relatives, women with high earnings potential, and celebrities.Download Info
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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 6689.Length: 12 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6689
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Related research
Keywords: children; fertility; demand for adoption; adoption; altruism;Other versions of this item:
- Dirk Bethmann & Michael Kvasnicka, 2012. "A Theory of Child Adoption," FEMM Working Papers 120015, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Faculty of Economics and Management.
- Dirk Bethmann & Michael Kvasnicka, 2012. "A Theory of Child Adoption," Ruhr Economic Papers 0342, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
- J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
- J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, and Operations
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2012-07-14 (All new papers)
- NEP-DEM-2012-07-14 (Demographic Economics)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Mariagiovanna Baccara & Allan Collard-Wexler & Leonardo Felli & Leeat Yariv, 2010. "Child-Adoption Matching: Preferences for Gender and Race," NBER Working Papers 16444, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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