Fertility and the Price of Children: Evidence from Slavery and Slave Emancipation

Wanamaker, Marianne

doi:10.1017/s0022050714000850

Cited by 26 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 14 publications

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“…Here, we point out that the expected payoff of a live birth, 𝑀𝐵 , depends on the context in which children are born. For economies at earlier stages of economic development, evidence suggests that children served as sources of household income such that a rise in the market returns to child labor induced additional births (Wanamaker 2014). The marginal benefit of children would then decline with household income, i.e., child labor is an inferior good.…”

Section: Conceptual Model Of Socioeconomic Status Fertility and The C...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Restrictive Abortion Legislation on Cohort Mortality Evidence from 19th Century Law Variation

Lahey¹,

Wanamaker²

2022

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Recent studies based on 20th century US data conclude that abortion access raises children's average socioeconomic outcomes. We generalize a model of fertility, highlighting assumptions under which these abortion predictions can be reversed. Using 19th century abortion restrictions, we empirically demonstrate these points. Despite a more than 5 percent increase in birth rates among abortion-restricted cohorts, we find little evidence of negative selection at birth. Longevity was affected nevertheless; in the first ten years of life, children in these larger cohorts died of infectious disease more frequently. These mortality effects diminish with age, potentially reversing at older ages as a result of disease immunity or other offsetting factors.

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Section: Conceptual Model Of Socioeconomic Status Fertility and The C...mentioning

confidence: 99%