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The Demand for Season of Birth

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Abstract

We study the determinants of season of birth of the first child, for White non-Hispanic married women aged 25-45 in the US, using birth certificate and Census data. The prevalence of good season (quarters 2 and 3) is significantly related to mother's age, education, and smoking status during pregnancy, as well as to receiving WIC food during pregnancy and to pre-pregnancy body mass index. Moreover, those who did not use assisted reproductive technology (ART) present a higher prevalence of good season births. The frequency of good season is also higher and more strongly related to mother's age in states where cold weather is more severe, and varies with mother's occupation, exhibiting a particularly strong positive association with working in "education, training, and library". Remarkably, this relationship between good season and weather disappears for mothers in "education, training, and library" occupations, revealing that season of birth is a matter of choice and preferences, not simply a biological mechanism. We estimate the compensating wage differential for mothers who work in jobs other than "education, training, and library", which allows us to provide an upper-bound to the life-time value of good season of birth of about USD 1,000,000. Finally, we present evidence that good season of birth is positively related to health at birth conditional on several maternal characteristics.

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  • Damian Clarke & Sonia Oreffice, 2016. "The Demand for Season of Birth," Economics Series Working Papers 792, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:oxf:wpaper:792
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    6. Damian Clarke & Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana‐Domeque, 2021. "On the Value of Birth Weight," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(5), pages 1130-1159, October.
    7. Frodermann, Corinna & Wrohlich, Katharina & Zucco, Aline, 2020. "Parental Leave Reform and Long-Run Earnings of Mothers," IZA Discussion Papers 12935, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Giuntella, Osea & La Mattina, Giulia & Quintana-Domeque, Climent, 2019. "Intergenerational Transmission of Health at Birth from Mothers and Fathers," IZA Discussion Papers 12105, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Nicolas Moreau, 2021. "The Zero Effect of Income Tax on the Timing of Birth: Some Evidence on French Data," Working Papers hal-03157256, HAL.
    10. repec:cup:judgdm:v:15:y:2020:i:5:p:756-782 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Evgeny A. Antipov & Elena B. Pokryshevskaya, 2020. "Impact of superstitious beliefs on the timing of marriage and childbirth: Evidence from Denmark," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 15(5), pages 756-782, September.
    12. Fumarco, Luca & Baert, Stijn, 2018. "Younger and Dissatisfied? Relative Age and Life-satisfaction in Adolescence," MPRA Paper 89968, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Libertad González Luna & Lidia Farré, 2017. "The effects of paternity leave on fertility and labor market outcomes," Economics Working Papers 1572, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    14. Ainoa Aparicio Fenoll & Nadia Campaniello & Ignacio Monzon, 2023. "Parental Love Is Not Blind: Identifying Selection into Early School Start," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 704 JEL Classification: I, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    15. Ainoa Aparicio Fenoll & Nadia Campaniello & Ignacio Monzón, 2023. "Parental Love Is Not Blind: Identifying Selection into Early School Start," Working Papers 286, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    16. Nicolas Moreau, 2023. "The zero effect of income tax on the timing of birth: some evidence on French data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(3), pages 757-783, June.
    17. Conway, Karen Smith & Trudeau, Jennifer, 2019. "Sunshine, fertility and racial disparities," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 18-39.
    18. Doyle, Mary-Alice, 2023. "Seasonal patterns in newborns’ health: quantifying the roles of climate, communicable disease, economic and social factors," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119971, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Frodermann, Corinna & Wrohlich, Katharina & Zucco, Aline, 2023. "Parental Leave Policy and Long-run Earnings of Mothers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    20. Thiemo Fetzer & Oliver Pardo & Amar Shanghavi, 2018. "More than an urban legend: the short- and long-run effects of unplanned fertility shocks," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 1125-1176, October.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Quarter of birth; Fertility timing; Compensating wage differentials; Birth out-comes.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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