Inequality and Growth: Why Differential Fertility Matters

David de la Croix and Matthias Doepke

American Economic Review, 2003, vol. 93, issue 4, 1091-1113

Abstract: We develop a new theoretical link between inequality and growth. In our model, fertility and education decisions are interdependent. Poor parents decide to have many children and invest little in education. A mean-preserving spread in the income distribution increases the fertility differential between the rich and the poor, which implies that more weight gets placed on families who provide little education. Consequently, an increase in inequality lowers average education and, therefore, growth. We find that this fertility-differential effect accounts for most of the empirical relationship between inequality and growth. (JEL J13, O40)

Date: 2003
Note: DOI: 10.1257/000282803769206214
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (475)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/000282803769206214 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Inequality and growth: why differential fertility matters (2003)
Working Paper: Inequality and Growth: Why Differential Fertility Matters (2001)
Working Paper: Inequality and Growth: Why Differential Fertility Matters (2001)
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:93:y:2003:i:4:p:1091-1113

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().