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Seasonality of fertility: New evidence

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Abstract

This paper presents evidence that the seasonal pattern of American fertility applies to nonwhites as well as whites. The patterns are also changing in the same way over time: the summer trough in births is shrinking in magnitude, and the spread of airconditioning, reducing the heat of summer, can explain this shrinkage. The summer hypothesis is further buttressed by evidence, for the total population, that summer temperature extremes can explain a significant portion of the variation around the seasonal trend, in both the North and South. These temperature-induced variations appear to be offset within seven months of their occurrence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Miami University, 45056, Oxford, OH, USA

    Daniel A. Seiver

Authors
  1. Daniel A. Seiver
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Additional information

This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Dennis Sullivan made a number of valuable critical comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Valuable research assistance was provided by Amy Powell and Robert Schoeni.

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Seiver, D.A. Seasonality of fertility: New evidence. Popul Environ 10, 245–257 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01255839

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01255839

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