Culture revisited: a geographic analysis of fertility decline in Prussia

Joshua R. Goldstein and Sebastian Klüsener
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Joshua R. Goldstein: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Sebastian Klüsener: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

No WP-2010-012, MPIDR Working Papers from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

Abstract: In this paper, we re-introduce geography into the analysis of fertility decline in the first demographic transition in Europe. We reanalyze Galloway et al.'s (1994) Prussian data, fitting structural models similar to those of Galloway et al. to the data and to map the residuals. Our findings give evidence both of the predictive effect of economic as well as cultural variables. However, although testing different non-spatial model specifications, a significant unexplained geographic clustering of fertility decline always remains. Indeed, adjacency to an area of large fertility decline and location along communication and transport corridors seem to be important predictors of fertility decline beyond what one would expect from structural models. This gives support to the cultural diffusion hypothesis of the Princeton European Fertility Project.

Keywords: German Empire; culture; diffusion of innovations; economics; fertility decline; spatial analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2010
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2010-012

DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2010-012

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