TY  - JOUR
AU  - Albanesi,Stefania
AU  - Olivetti,Claudia
TI  - Maternal Health and the Baby Boom
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 16146
PY  - 2010
Y2  - July 2010
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16146
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16146.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Stefania Albanesi
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
33 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10045
Tel: 212 720 5443
E-Mail: stefania.albanesi@gmail.com

Claudia Olivetti
Boston University
Department of Economics
270 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
Tel: 617/613-1228
Fax: 617/353-4449
E-Mail: olivetti@bu.edu
AB  - U.S. fertility rose from a low of 2.27 children for women born in 1908 to a peak of 3.21 children for women born in 1932. It dropped to a new low of 1.74 children for women born in 1949, before stabilizing for subsequent cohorts. We propose a novel explanation for this boom-bust pattern, linking it to the huge improvements in maternal health that started in the mid 1930s. Our hypothesis is that the improvements in maternal health contributed to the mid-twentieth century baby boom and generated a rise in women's human capital, ultimately leading to a decline in desired fertility for subsequent cohorts. To examine this link empirically, we exploit the large cross-state variation in the magnitude of the decline in pregnancy-related mortality and the differential exposure by cohort. We find that the decline in maternal mortality is associated with a rise in fertility for women born between 1921 and 1940, with a rise in college and high school graduation rates for women born in 1933-1950, and with a decline in fertility for women born in 1941-1950. These findings are consistent with a theory of fertility featuring a trade-off between the quality and quantity of children. The analysis provides new insights on the determinants of fertility in the U.S. and other countries that experienced similar improvements in maternal health.
ER  -