Social Change

Jeremy Greenwood () and Nezih Guner ()

No 6125, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Society is characterized by the common attitudes and behaviour of its members. Such behaviour reflects purposive decision making by individuals, given the environment they live in. Thus, as technology changes, so might social norms. There were big changes in social norms during the 20th Century, especially in sexual mores. In 1900 only six percent of unwed females engaged in premarital sex. Now, three quarters do. It is argued here that this was the result of technological improvement in contraceptives, which lowered the cost of premarital sex. The evolution from an abstinent to a promiscuous society is studied using an equilibrium-matching model.

Keywords: technological progress in contraceptives; the sexual revolution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E1 J1 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-ino and nep-mac
Date: 2007-02
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP6125.asp (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: Social Change (2008)
Working Paper: Social Change (2006)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6125

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP6125.asp

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers
Address: Centre for Economic Policy Research, 53--56 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DG
Series data maintained by ().