Early Fertility Decline in the United States
Tests of Alternative Hypotheses Using New Complete-Count Census Microdata and Enhanced County-Level Data
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20088087 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jason Daniel Hacker (0000-0002-5971-955X, National Bureau of Economic Research), J David Hacker, Michael R Haines (National Bureau of Economic Research), Matthew Jaremski (Utah State University) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Pages | 89-128 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-30 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Research in Economic History (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Emerald Publishing Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1108/s0363-326820210000037003 |
| OpenAlex | W4323642742 |
| ISBN | 9781800718807 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 52 |
The US fertility transition in the nineteenth century is unusual. Not only did it start from a very high fertility level and very early in the nation’s development, but it also took place long before the nation’s mortality transition, industrialization, and urbanization. This paper assembles new county-level, household-level, and individual-level data, including new complete-count IPUMS microdata databases of the 1830–1880 censuses, to evaluate different theories for the nineteenth-century American fertility transition. We construct cross-sectional models of net fertility for currently-married white couples in census years 1830–1880 and test the results with a subset of couples linked between the 1850–1860, 1860–1870, and 1870–1880 censuses. We find evidence of marital fertility control consistent with hypotheses as early as 1830. The results indicate support for several different but complementary theories of the early US fertility decline, including the land availability, conventional structuralist, ideational, child demand/quality-quantity tradeoff, and life cycle savings theories
Census · Demographic economics · Demographic transition · Developed country · Economic growth · Economics · Family planning · Fertility · Geography · Historical demography · Population · Research methodology · Sociology · Total fertility rate · Urbanization · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Historical Economic and Social Studies
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| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |