Easterlin revisted: Relative income and the baby boom

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• dc.contributor.author Hill, Matthew J.ca
• dc.contributor.other Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament d'Economia i Empresa
• dc.date.accessioned 2017-07-26T10:49:58Z
• dc.date.available 2017-07-26T10:49:58Z
• dc.date.issued 2014-09-01
• dc.date.modified 2017-07-23T02:51:44Z
• dc.description.abstract This paper reexamines the first viable and a still leading explanation for mid-twentieth century baby booms: Richard Easterlin's relative income hypothesis. He suggested that when incomes are higher than material aspirations (formed in childhood), birth rates would rise. This paper uses microeconomic data to formulate a measure of an individual's relative income. The use of microeconomic data allows the researcher to control for both state fixed effects and cohort fixed effects, both have been absent in previous examinations of Easterlin's hypothesis. The results of the empirical analysis are consistent with Easterlin's assertion that relative income influenced fertility decisions, although the effect operates only through childhood income. When the estimated effects are contextualized, they explain 12 percent of the U.S. baby boom.
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdfca
• dc.identifier https://econ-papers.upf.edu/ca/paper.php?id=1453
• dc.identifier.citation Explorations in Economic History, Forthcoming
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/22806
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.relation.ispartofseries Economics and Business Working Papers Series; 1453
• dc.rights L'accés als continguts d'aquest document queda condicionat a l'acceptació de les condicions d'ús establertes per la següent llicència Creative Commons
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/
• dc.subject.keyword Economic and Business History
• dc.title Easterlin revisted: Relative income and the baby boomca
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaper