Maternal Health and the Baby Boom

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. We propose a novel explanation for this boom-bust pattern, linking it to the huge improvements in maternal health that started in the mid-1930s. Our hypothesis is that the improvements in maternal health contributed to the mid-twentieth century baby boom and generated a rise in women's human capital, ultimately leading to a decline in desired fertility for subsequent cohorts. To examine this link empirically, we exploit the large cross-state variation in the magnitude of the decline in pregnancy-related mortality and the differential exposure by cohort. We find that the decline in maternal mortality is associated with a rise in fertility for women born between 1921 and 1940, with a rise in college and high school graduation rates for women born in 1933-1950 relative to previous cohorts, and with a decline in fertility for women born in 1941-1950 relative to those born in [1921][1922][1923][1924][1925][1926][1927][1928][1929][1930][1931][1932][1933][1934][1935][1936][1937][1938][1939][1940]. The analysis provides new insights on the determinants of fertility in the United States and other countries that experienced similar improvements in maternal health. Terms of use: Documents in

Life expectancy and education: evidence from the cardiovascular revolution

“…5 Unsurprisingly, the relationship between life expectancy at age 30 (or 50) in 1960 and CVD is negative and statistically significant at the 1 percent level (columns 1 and 2). Thus, states with higher death rates from CVDs also had lower adult life expectancies, suggesting that in fact CVD mortality was quantitatively 5 The covariates are: initial mortality and income important. More importantly for our analysis, however, we also find that CVD is completely unrelated to changes in life expectancy between 1940 and 1960, which implies that the CVD shock has no predictive power for life expectancy in the pretreatment period (columns 3 and 4).…”

The Contribution of Female Health to Economic Development

“…While such a channel has been identified as empirically relevant (e.g., Field et al, 2009), it is by no means the only one. As Jayachandran and Lleras-Muney (2009) and Albanesi and Olivetti (2014) show, reductions in maternal mortality also serve as a trigger by fostering investments in female education, which ultimately translate into greater labor participation and lower fertility. An examination of this channel would call for an extension of our model to incorporate gender-specific educational investments.…”

“…This allows us to highlight the role of general equilibrium repercussions and to explicitly calculate the timing of the economic transition. By emphasizing the role of female health in economic development, our model bears some resemblance to the theoretical analyses in Jayachandran and Lleras-Muney (2009), Albanesi andOlivetti (2014), de la Croix andVander Donckt (2010), and Agénor et al (2010). The first two of these articles examine how fertility and educational choices at the household level depend on maternal mortality but do not extend this analysis into a macroeconomic framework.…”

Life Expectancy and Education: Evidence from the Cardiovascular Revolution

“…Thus, states with higher death rates from CVDs also had lower adult life expectancies, suggesting that in fact CVD mortality was quantitatively 5 The covariates are: initial mortality and income important. More importantly for our analysis, however, we also find that CVD is completely unrelated to changes in life expectancy between 1940 and 1960, which implies that the CVD shock has no predictive power for life expectancy in the pretreatment period (columns 3 and 4).…”