Abstract
At the aggregate level, human reproduction is the ultimate source of an economic system’s labour input and of the consumers who constitute the principal destination of the economy’s output. At the individual level, children are an important source of satisfaction that compete with alternatives for the limited parental resources of time, energy and money available. Despite this, reproductive behaviour has traditionally been omitted from economic theorizing, and even in the past three decades has gained only a marginal foothold.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Ahlburg, D.A. 1984. Commodity aspirations in Easterlin’s relative income theory of fertility. Social Biology 31(3/4): 201–207.
Becker, G.S. 1960. An economic analysis of fertility. In Demographic and economic change in developed countries. Universities-National Bureau conference series No. 11. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Becker, G.S. 1965. A theory of the allocation of time. Economic Journal 75: 493–517.
Becker, G.S. 1981. A treatise on the family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Becker, G.S., and H.G. Lewis. 1974. Interaction between quantity and quality of children. In The economics of the family, ed. T.W. Schultz. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Becker, G.S., and N. Tomes. 1976. Child endowments and the quantity and quality of children. Journal of Political Economy 84(4), Part 2: S143–S162.
Behrman, J.R., and B.L. Wolfe. 1984. A more general approach to fertility determination in a developing country: The importance of biological supply considerations, endogeneous tastes and unperceived jointness. Economica 51: 319–339.
Ben-Porath, Y. 1973. Short-term fluctations in fertility and economic activity in Israel. Demography 10(2): 185–204.
Ben-Porath, Y. 1975. First generation effects on second generation fertility. Demography 12(3): 397–405.
Ben-Porath, Y. 1982. Economics and the family-match or mismatch? A review of Becker’s ‘a treatise on the family’. Journal of Economic Literature 20(1): 52–64.
Bulatao, R.A., and R.D. Lee (eds.). 1983. Determinants of fertility in developing countries: A summary of knowledge. New York: Academic Press.
Butz, W.P., and M.P. Ward. 1979. The emergence of countercyclical US fertility. American Economic Review 69(3): 318–328.
Coale, A.J. 1967. The voluntary control of human fertility. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 111(3): 164–169.
Crimmins, E.M., R.A. Easterlin, S.J. Jejeebhoy, and K. Srinivasan. 1984. New perspectives on the demographic transition: A theoretical and empirical analysis of an Indian state, 1951–1975. Economic Development and Cultural Change 32(2): 227–253.
Devaney, B. 1984. An analysis of variations in U.S. fertility and female labor force participation trends. Demography 20(2): 147–161.
Dyson, T., and M. Murphy. 1985. The onset of fertility transition. Population and Development Review 11(3): 399–440.
Easterlin, R.A. 1969. Towards a socioeconomic theory of fertility: A survey of recent research on economic factors in American fertility. In Fertility and family planning: A world view, ed. S.J. Behrman, Leslie Corsa Jr., and R. Freedman. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Easterlin, R.A. 1973. Relative economic status and the American fertility swing. In Family economic behavior: Problems and prospects, ed. E.B. Sheldon. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
Easterlin, R.A. 1976. Population change and farm settlement in the northern United States. Journal of Economic History 36(1): 45–75.
Easterlin, R.A. 1978. The economics and sociology of fertility: A synthesis. In Historical studies of changing fertility, ed. C. Tilly. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Easterlin, R.A. 1980. Birth and fortune. New York: Basic Books.
Easterlin, R.A., R.A. Pollak, and M.L. Wachter. 1980. Toward a more general economic model of fertility determination: Endogenous preferences and natural fertility. In Population and economic change in developing countries, ed. R.A. Easterlin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Henry, L. 1961. La fécondité naturelle: observations – théorie – résultats. Population 16(4): 625–636.
Keeley, M. 1975. A comment on ‘An interpretation of the economic theory of fertility’. Journal of Economic Literature 13(2): 461–467.
Kramer, W., and K. Neusser. 1984. The emergence of countercyclical U.S. fertility: Note. American Economic Review 74(1): 201–202.
Lancaster, K.J. 1971. Consumer demand: A new approach. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lee, R. 1974. The formal dynamics of controlled populations and the echo, the boom and the bust. Demography 11(4): 563–585.
Leibenstein, H. 1957. Economic backwardness and economic growth. New York: Wiley.
Leibenstein, H. 1974. An interpretation of the economic theory of fertility: Promising path or blind alley? Journal of Economic Literature 12(2): 457–479.
Leibenstein, H. 1975. The economic theory of fertility decline. Quarterly Journal of Economics 89(1): 1–31.
Lindert, P.H. 1978. Fertility and scarcity in America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Lindert, P.H. 1980. Child costs and economic development. In Population and economic change in developing countries, ed. R.A. Easterlin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lindert, P.H. 1983. The changing economic costs and benefits of having children. In Determinants of fertility in developing countries: A summary of knowledge, vol. 1, ed. R. Bulatao and R.D. Lee. New York: Academic.
McDonald, J. 1983. The emergence of countercyclical US fertility: A reassessment of the evidence. Journal of Macroeconomics 5(4): 421–436.
Michael, R.T., and R.J. Willis. 1976. Contraception and fertility: Household production under uncertainty. In Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, Household Production and Consumption. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Mincer, J. 1963. Market prices, opportunity costs, and income effects. In Measurement in economics, ed. C. Christ et al. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Mincer, J., and S. Polachek. 1974. Family investments in human capital: Earnings of women. In The economics of the family, ed. T.W. Schultz. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mueller, E., and K. Short. 1983. Effects of income and wealth on the demand for children. In Determinants of fertility in developing countries: A summary of knowledge, vol. 1, ed. R. Bulatao and R.D. Lee. New York: Academic Press.
Nerlove, M. 1974. Household and economy: Toward a new theory of population and economic growth. Journal of Political Economy 82(2), Part II: S200–S218.
Rosenzweig, M.R., and T.P. Schultz. 1985. The demand for and supply of births: Fertility and its life cycle consequences. American Economic Review 75(5): 992–1015.
Samuelson, P.A. 1976. An economist’s non-linear model of self-generated fertility waves. Population Studies 30(2): 243–247.
Sanderson, W.C. 1976. On two schools of the economics of fertility. Population and Development Review 2(3–4): 469–477.
Sanderson, W.C. 1980. Comment. In Population and economic change in developing countries, ed. R.A. Easterlin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Schultz, T. 1976. Determinants of fertility: A micro-economic model of choice. In Economic factors in population growth, ed. A.J. Coale. New York: Halsted Press.
Schultz, T.P. 1979. Current developments in the economics of fertility. In International Union for the Scientific Study of Population: Economic and demographic change: Issues for the 1980’s. Proceedings of the Conference, Helsinki 1978, vol. 3, 27–38. Liège: IUSSP.
Schultz, T.P. 1981. Economics of population. Reading: Addison-Wesley Co.
Schultz, T.W. (ed.). 1974. The economics of the family. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Simon, J.L. 1974. The effects of income on fertility. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Tabarrah, R.B. 1971. Toward a theory of demographic development. Economic Development and Cultural Change 19(2): 257–277.
Turchi, B.A. 1975. The demand for children: The economics of fertility in the United States. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
Willis, R.J. 1973. A new approach to the economic theory of fertility behavior. Journal of Political Economy 81(2), Part II: S14–S64.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Easterlin, R.A. (2018). Fertility. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_604
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_604
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences