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Fertility and the Price of Children: Evidence from Slavery and Slave Emancipation

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  • Wanamaker, Marianne H.

Abstract

Theories of the demographic transition often center on the rising price of children. A model of fertility derived from household production in the antebellum United States contains both own children and slaves as inputs. Changes in slaveholdings beget changes in the marginal product of the slaveowners’ own children and, hence, their price. I use panel data on slaveowning households between 1850 and 1870 to measure the slaveowners’ own fertility responses to exogenous changes in slaveholdings. Results indicate a strong, negative correlation between own child prices and fertility.

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  • Wanamaker, Marianne H., 2014. "Fertility and the Price of Children: Evidence from Slavery and Slave Emancipation," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(4), pages 1045-1071, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:74:y:2014:i:04:p:1045-1071_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Philipp Ager & Leah Boustan & Katherine Eriksson, 2021. "The Intergenerational Effects of a Large Wealth Shock: White Southerners after the Civil War," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(11), pages 3767-3794, November.
    2. Joanna N. Lahey & Marianne H. Wanamaker, 2022. "Effects of Restrictive Abortion Legislation on Cohort Mortality Evidence from 19th Century Law Variation," NBER Working Papers 30201, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Richard C. Sutch, 2018. "The Economics of African American Slavery: The Cliometrics Debate," NBER Working Papers 25197, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Chiswick, Barry R. & Robinson, RaeAnn H., 2023. "The Occupational Attainment of American Jewish Men in the Mid-19th Century," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1256, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

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