Child Endowments, and the Quantity and Quality of Children

Gary Becker and Nigel Tomes

No 123, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper brings together and integrates social interactions and the special relation between quantity and quality. We are able to show that the observed quality income elasticity would be relatively high and the quantity elasticity relatively low and sometimes negative, even if the true "unobserved� income elasticities for quantity and quality were equal and of average value. Moreover, the observed quality elasticity would fall, and the observed quantity elasticity would rise, as parental income rose.

Date: 1976-02
Note: CH
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Published as Becker, Gary S. and Nigel Tomes. "Child Endowments, and the Quantity of Children." Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 84, No. 4, part 2, (August 1976) , pp. S143-S162.

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