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The Economics of Assisted Reproduction

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  • Kossoudji, Sherrie

    (University of Michigan)

Abstract

Typically, when two people decide to become parents, they procreate by copulation and produce a child. What do people do if, for some reason, they can’t produce their own children but want to be parents? Today, a prospective parent can go to the web, drop a vial of sperm from a donor with specific selected characteristics into a “shopping cart” and have that sperm delivered in twenty-four hours. Similarly, one can sift through the profiles and pictures of women who are egg donors and select eggs from women with desired characteristics and arrange an egg delivery. These markets are two segments that loosely fall under the rubric of Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ART), which is a shorthand term for the numerous procedures aided by technology used to produce a baby. This primer in the economics of assisted reproduction introduces some of the economic dilemmas brought about by new reproductive technologies. Now the cost of producing children can radically differ among people of similar incomes and values because a prospective parent may have to pay to gain rights to the genetic components that build the child.

Suggested Citation

  • Kossoudji, Sherrie, 2005. "The Economics of Assisted Reproduction," IZA Discussion Papers 1458, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1458
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Schultz, T Paul, 1985. "The Demand for and Supply of Births: Fertility and Its Life Cycle Consequences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(5), pages 992-1015, December.
    2. Sofia Lundberg, 2000. "Child Auctions in Nineteenth Century Sweden: An Analysis of Price Differences," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(2), pages 279-298.
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • 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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