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The Demand for Season of Birth

Author

Listed:
  • Damian Clarke

    (Universidad de Santiago de Chile)

  • Sonia Oreffice

    (University of Surrey)

  • Climent Quintana-Domeque

    (University of Oxford and St Edmund Hall)

Abstract

We study the determinants of season of birth, for white married women aged 20-45 in the US, using birth certificate and Census data. We also elicit the willingness to pay for season of birth through discrete choice experiments implemented on the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform. We document that the probability of a spring first birth is significantly related to mother's age, education, smoking status during pregnancy, and the mother working in "education, training, and library" occupations, whereas a summer first birth does not depend on socio-demographic characteristics. We find consistent but stronger correlates when focusing on second births, while all our findings are muted among unmarried women. We estimate the average willingness to pay for a spring birth to be 600 USD, which is about 18% of the most valued birth in our Amazon Mechanical Turk experimental sample or 15% of the mean charges for a normal birth in 2013 according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Damian Clarke & Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2016. "The Demand for Season of Birth," Working Papers 2016-032, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:hka:wpaper:2016-032
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    Cited by:

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    2. Fumarco, Luca & Hartmann, Sven A. & Principe, Francesco, 2024. "A Neglected Determinant of Eating Behaviors: Relative Age," IZA Discussion Papers 16920, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Brewer, Mike & Cattan, Sarah & Crawford, Claire & Rabe, Birgitta, 2022. "Does more free childcare help parents work more?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    4. Almond, Douglas & Cheng, Yi, 2021. "Perinatal health among 1 million Chinese-Americans," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    5. Molina, Oswaldo & Saldarriaga, Victor, 2017. "The perils of climate change: In utero exposure to temperature variability and birth outcomes in the Andean region," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 111-124.
    6. Fumarco, Luca & Baert, Stijn, 2018. "Younger and Dissatisfied? Relative Age and Life-satisfaction in Adolescence," MPRA Paper 89968, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Lídia Farré & Libertad González, 2017. "The Effects of Paternity Leave on Fertility and Labor Market Outcomes," Working Papers 978, Barcelona School of Economics.
    8. Fumarco, L. & Baert, S. & Sarracino, F., 2020. "Younger, dissatisfied, and unhealthy – Relative age in adolescence," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    9. Corinna Frodermann & Katharina Wrohlich & Aline Zucco, 2020. "Parental Leave Reform and Long-Run Earnings of Mothers," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1847, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    10. Ainoa Aparicio Fenoll & Nadia Campaniello & Ignacio Monzón, 2023. "Parental Love Is Not Blind: Identifying Selection into Early School Start," Working Papers 286, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    11. Wrohlich, Katharina & Zucco, Aline, 2023. "15 Jahre Elterngeld: Auswirkungen und Reformoptionen," Working Paper Forschungsförderung 281, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
    12. Damian Clarke & Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana‐Domeque, 2021. "On the Value of Birth Weight," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(5), pages 1130-1159, October.
    13. Nicolas Moreau, 2023. "The zero effect of income tax on the timing of birth: some evidence on French data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(3), pages 757-783, June.
    14. Conway, Karen Smith & Trudeau, Jennifer, 2019. "Sunshine, fertility and racial disparities," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 18-39.
    15. Osea Giuntella & Giulia La Mattina & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2019. "Intergenerational Transmission of Health at Birth from Mothers and Fathers," Working Papers 2019-010, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    16. Doyle, Mary-Alice, 2023. "Seasonal patterns in newborns’ health: quantifying the roles of climate, communicable disease, economic and social factors," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119971, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Frodermann, Corinna & Wrohlich, Katharina & Zucco, Aline, 2023. "Parental Leave Policy and Long-run Earnings of Mothers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    18. Nicolas Moreau, 2021. "The Zero Effect of Income Tax on the Timing of Birth: Some Evidence on French Data," Working Papers hal-03157256, HAL.
    19. repec:cup:judgdm:v:15:y:2020:i:5:p:756-782 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Doyle, Mary-Alice, 2023. "Seasonal patterns in newborns’ health: Quantifying the roles of climate, communicable disease, economic and social factors," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    21. Thiemo Fetzer & Oliver Pardo & Amar Shanghavi, 2018. "More than an urban legend: the short- and long-run effects of unplanned fertility shocks," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 1125-1176, October.
    22. Abeliansky, Ana Lucia & Strulik, Holger, 2020. "Season of birth, health and aging," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    quarter of birth; willingness to pay; NVSS; ACS-IPUMS; Amazon Mechanical Turk; discrete choice experiments; fertility timing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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