The Geography of Social Change

Stefania Marcassa and Alessandra Fogli
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Stefania Marcassa: Université de Cergy-Pontoise

No 1388, 2014 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: We investigate how and when social change arises. We use data on the spatial diffusion of the fertility transition across US counties to identify the contribution of coordination and learning in the emergence of a new family model. We provide several measures of local and global spatial correlation to establish the existence of a significant geographic pattern in the data. We propose a mechanism in which cultural assimilation is the engine of the fertility transition. Using Census data starting from 1850, we estimate the speed of fertility assimilation for the different ethnic groups to show that their process of convergence is a crucial channel to explain the aggregate decline of fertility rate over time and across space.

Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-geo and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:red:sed014:1388

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