ARE CHILDREN NORMAL?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Black, Dan A.; Kolesnikova, Natalia; Sanders, Seth G.; Taylor, Lowell J.
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - St. Louis; University of Mississippi; Duke University; Carnegie Mellon University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00257
• 发表日期: 2013-03
• 页码: 21-33
• 关键词: birth-rates; coal boom; fertility; wages; QUALITY; IMPACT; income; rents

摘要

We examine Becker's (1960) contention that children are normal. For the cross-section of non-Hispanic white married couples in the United States, we show that when we restrict comparisons to similarly educated women living in similarly expensive locations, completed fertility is positively correlated with the husband's income. The empirical evidence is consistent with children being normal. In an effort to show causal effects, we analyze the localized impact on fertility of the mid-1970s' increase in world energy prices, an exogenous shock that substantially increased men's incomes in the Appalachian coal-mining region. Empirical evidence for that population indicates that fertility increases with men's income.