A Theory of Child Adoption

Dirk Bethmann and Michael Kvasnicka

Journal of Economic Development, 2022, vol. 47, issue 2, 101-114

Abstract: Women can bear own children or adopt them. Extending economic theories of fertility, we provide a first formal theoretical treatment of the demand for adoption. It is shown that the propensity to adopt a child increases in the degree of own altruism, infertility, relatedness and emotional attachment to the child, costs of own child birth, and any adoption-specific monetary return that is received net of the costs of adopting the child. Aggregate adoption statistics are broadly consistent with the predictions of our model. Classification-JEL:

Keywords: Adoption; Demand for Adoption; Fertility; Children; Altruism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D02 J12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Related works:
Working Paper: A Theory of Child Adoption (2012)
Working Paper: A Theory of Child Adoption (2012)
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