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Title: Fertility Responses to Infant and Maternal Mortality: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from 20th Century America

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2013

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Abstract: The introduction of the first antibiotics in the United States in the late 1930s led simultaneously to a sharp fall in infant and maternal mortality. We study the fertility response to these changes. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we find that the fall in maternal mortality led to increased fertility. The fall in infant mortality increased fertility on the extensive margin but decreased it on the intensive margin. Our results contribute to a small empirical literature that provides well-identified estimates of the quantity-quality tradeoff and they support the contention of essential complementarity posited in a recent extension to the canonical model (Aaronson, et al, 2012)

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Authors: Venkataramani, Atheendar; Bhalotra, Sonia R.; Hollywood, David

Conference Name: 2013 AEA Meetings

Publisher Location: San Diego, CA

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Fertility and Mortality, Health

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