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Highly educated women are no longer childless: The role of marketization

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  • Hazan, Moshe
  • Weiss, David
  • Zoabi, Hosny

Abstract

Baudin et al. (2015) document that childlessness rates in the U.S. in 1990 exhibited a U-shaped relationship with women’s education, with highly educated women much more likely to be childless than other women. We show that this is no longer true: the childlessness rate of highly educated women has converged to that of other women. We argue that highly educated women are now able to marketize the time cost of child rearing, allowing them to have both a family and a career.

Suggested Citation

  • Hazan, Moshe & Weiss, David & Zoabi, Hosny, 2023. "Highly educated women are no longer childless: The role of marketization," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:230:y:2023:i:c:s0165176523002513
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111226
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Thomas Baudin & David de la Croix & Paula E. Gobbi, 2015. "Fertility and Childlessness in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(6), pages 1852-1882, June.
    2. Naomi Gershoni & Corinne Low, 2021. "Older Yet Fairer: How Extended Reproductive Time Horizons Reshaped Marriage Patterns in Israel," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 198-234, January.
    3. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2008. "Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality: Revising the Revisionists," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(2), pages 300-323, May.
    4. Francesca Mazzolari & Giuseppe Ragusa, 2013. "Spillovers from High-Skill Consumption to Low-Skill Labor Markets," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(1), pages 74-86, March.
    5. Alma Cohen & Moshe Hazan & David Weiss, 2025. "Politics and gender in the executive suite," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(3), pages 893-929.
    6. Moshe Hazan & Hosny Zoabi, 2015. "Do Highly Educated Women Choose Smaller Families?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(587), pages 1191-1226, September.
    7. Michael Bar & Moshe Hazan & Oksana Leukhina & David Weiss & Hosny Zoabi, 2018. "Why did rich families increase their fertility? Inequality and marketization of child care," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 427-463, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Virtanen, Hanna & Silliman, Mikko & Kuuppelomäki, Tiina & Huttunen, Kristiina, 2024. "Education, Gender, and Family Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 17122, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. Yang Gao & Hongling Xie & Qiannan Wang & Chen Chen, 2024. "How educational inequality affects family multichild behavior—evidence from super high schools," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Xinjie Shi & Pei Zeng & Liu Cui & Xuwen Gao & Tongwei Qiu & Qiang Jiang & Linlin Fu, 2025. "Assessing the impact of marketization on energy poverty," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 9257-9286, April.
    4. Bimardhika, Elghafiky & Halim, Daniel Zefanya, 2026. "To Have It All ? Career and Family of College-Educated Women in an Emerging Economy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11326, The World Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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