CAN INTERNAL MIGRATION FOSTER THE CONVERGENCE IN REGIONAL FERTILITY RATES? EVIDENCE FROM 19TH CENTURY FRANCE

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Daudin, Guillaume; Franck, Raphael; Rapoport, Hillel
• 署名单位: Universite PSL; Universite Paris-Dauphine; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD); Laboratoire dEconomie de Dauphine LEDa; Paris School of Economics; Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12623
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 1618-1692
• 关键词: demographic-transition; marital fertility; ECONOMIC-GROWTH; LABOR; education; decline; NORMS; AGE; determinants; assimilation

摘要

This article offers an explanation for the convergence of fertility rates across French departements in the second half of the 19th century that emphasises the diffusion of information through internal migration. It tests how migration affected fertility by building a decennial bilateral migration matrix between French departements for 1861-911. The identification strategy uses exogenous variation in transportation costs resulting from the construction of railways. The results suggest that the convergence towards low birth rates can be explained by the diffusion of cultural and economic information pertaining to low-fertility behaviour by migrants, especially by migrants to and from Paris.