The Dynamics of Gender Norms and Fertility Decline

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Xi, Xican; Zhou, Anson
• 署名单位: Fudan University; Shanghai Institute of International Finance & Economics
• 刊物名称: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0020-6598
• DOI: 10.1111/iere.70100
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: cultural transmission; structural-change; parental leave; LABOR; GROWTH; education; return; work; gap

摘要

This paper models fertility as the outcome of gender-biased technological progress interacting with endogenous social norms governing childcare. When rising female wages outpace norm adjustment, the inherited norm makes reallocating childcare toward fathers costly, so mothers bear a disproportionate burden and the shadow price of children rises. In cross-country data, fertility falls faster where women's relative standing rises, especially where norms are tighter or more rigid. Calibrated to South Korea (1976-2016), the model shows that strong, slow-adjusting norms deepen the decline. Despite smaller short-run effects, male childcare subsidies yield larger long-run gains than female subsidies by accelerating convergence to egalitarian norms.