10.17889/E109007V1
Gobbi, Paula E.
Baudin, Thomas
de la Croix, David
Replication data for: Fertility and Childlessness in the United States
ICPSR Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
2014
10.1257/aer.20120926
10.1257/aer.20120926
1
We develop a theory of fertility, distinguishing its intensive margin from its extensive margin. The deep parameters are identified using facts from the 1990 US Census: (i) fertility of mothers decreases with education; (ii) childlessness exhibits a U-shaped relationship with education; (iii) the relationship between marriage rates and education is hump-shaped for women and increasing for men. We estimate that 2.5 percent of women were childless because of poverty and 8.1 percent because of high opportunity cost of childrearing. Over time, historical trends in total factor productivity and in education led to a U-shaped response in childlessness rates while fertility of mothers decreased. (JEL I20, J13, J16, N31, N32)