Citation

Discussion Paper Details

Please find the details for DP9121 in an easy to copy and paste format below:

Full Details

Title: Fecundity, Fertility and Family Reconstitution Data: The Child Quantity-Quality Trade-O Revisite

Author(s): Marc Klemp and Jacob Weisdorf

Publication Date: September 2012

Keyword(s): Child Quantity-Quality Trade-Off, Demographic Transition, Human Capital Formation, Industrial Revolution and Instrumental Variable Analysis

Programme Area(s): Economic History

Abstract: Growth theorists have recently argued that western nations grew rich by parents substituting child quantity (number of births) for child quality (education). Using family reconstitution data from historical England, we explore the causal link between family size and human capital of offspring measured by their literacy status and professional skills. We use a proxy of marital fecundity to instrument family size, finding that children of couples of low fecundity (and hence small families) were more likely to become literate and employed in a skilled profession than those born to couples of high fecundity (and hence large families). Robust to a variety of specifications, our findings are unusually supportive of the notion of a child quantity-quality trade-off, suggesting this could well have played a key role for the wealth of nations.

For full details and related downloads, please visit: https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=9121

Bibliographic Reference

Klemp, M and Weisdorf, J. 2012. 'Fecundity, Fertility and Family Reconstitution Data: The Child Quantity-Quality Trade-O Revisite'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=9121