Work

Are Children “Normal”?

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: 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..

Source: The Review of Economics and Statistics

DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00257

Authors: Dan A. Black, Natalia Kolesnikova, Seth G. Sanders, Lowell J. Taylor