Land ownership, the subsistence constraint, and the demographic transition

Joel M. Guttman () and Avi Tillman ()
Additional contact information
Joel M. Guttman: Bar-Ilan University
Avi Tillman: University College London

Review of Economics of the Household, 2017, vol. 15, issue 3, No 14, 1017-1036

Abstract: Abstract We develop a novel model of fertility choice predicting an increase and subsequent decrease in fertility levels without introducing a quality–quantity tradeoff, mortality changes, or urbanization. The model highlights the roles of a subsistence constraint and non-wage income deriving from the ownership of land. We show that the sign of the effect of the wage rate on fertility depends on whether non-wage income is greater or less than a minimum consumption level. Suggestive evidence supporting the model, on changes in fertility from 1851 to 1891 across French départements, is provided. Finally, we embed our static model in a model of endogenous growth, and provide a numerical illustration of the working of the model.

Keywords: Demographic transition; Subsistence constraint; Fertility decline; New household economics; Land ownership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 N13 N33 O41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11150-015-9286-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
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:kap:reveho:v:15:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s11150-015-9286-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/11150/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11150-015-9286-9

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Economics of the Household is currently edited by Shoshana Grossbard

More articles in Review of Economics of the Household from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().