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The “Quiet Revolution” and the cesarean section in the United States

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  • Grant, Darren

Abstract

This paper estimates how changes in family structure and women’s labor market attachment during the last fifty years have affected the incidence of cesarean delivery in the United States. Both sets of factors are strongly related to cesarean utilization, and have generally changed so as to increase the rate of cesarean delivery over time. Altogether, changes in these factors, complemented by demographic changes, raised the U.S. cesarean section rate by eleven percentage points since the late 1970s, nearly two-thirds of the increase over that period. Today’s elevated cesarean section rate is in part a social phenomenon.

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  • Grant, Darren, 2022. "The “Quiet Revolution” and the cesarean section in the United States," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:47:y:2022:i:c:s1570677x22000880
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2022.101192
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cesarean section; Quiet Revolution; Women’s employment; Childbirth; Markov chain;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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