Full Citation

Title: The Babies of Financial Deregulation

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2016

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: Does financial deregulation lead to unintended consequences at the family level by affecting fundamental choices such as the decision to have children? Using household-level data and a ruling by a U.S. federal regulator that created geographical heterogeneity in access to mortgage credit, this paper shows that financial deregulation leads to an increase in homeownership, which in turn leads to an increase in the propensity to have a child. Households of childbearing age who are fully exposed to this financial deregulation event increase their probability of both purchasing a home and having a child by 4 to 5 percentage points. The documented increases in births are not driven by housing wealth, financial wealth, or employment outcomes that might be affected by the deregulation event. Rather, they seem to be driven by an increase in access to space and residential stability spurred by the transition to homeownership. An analysis of the six years after the deregulation event suggests that part of the documented effect is a shift in the timing to have children.

Url: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2464530

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Hacamo, Isaac

Publisher: Indiana University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Fertility and Mortality, Housing and Segregation, Other

Countries: