Volume 32 - Article 16 | Pages 487–532
Urban fertility responses to local government programs: Evidence from the 1923-1932 U.S.
By Jonathan Fox, Mikko Myrskylä
Abstract
Background: During the 1920s and early 1930s, U.S. fertility declined overall but with large regional variations. Changes in foreign born populations explain only part of this. Differences in public health and poverty relief programs may further help explain these declines because of their potential impact on fertility determinants, in particular on breastfeeding and child mortality.
Objective: We investigate whether public health investments in child health (conservation of child life programs) and poverty relief (outdoor care of poor or charity for children and mothers) affected fertility for U.S. cities over 100,000 persons between 1923 and 1932.
Methods: We analyze data covering 64 cities between 1923-1932 that include birth information from the U.S. Birth, Stillbirth and Infant Mortality Statistics volumes and city financial information from the Financial Statistics of Cities volumes. Time and city fixed-effects models are used to identify the impact of public investments on fertility.
Results: Fixed effects estimates indicating the conservation of child life programs explain about 10 percent of the fertility change between 1923 and 1932. Outdoor care of poor did not seem to be related to fertility. Investments in charity for children and mothers were associated with fertility increases, possibly because poorer areas experienced relative increases in both higher fertility and charitable spending.
Conclusions: Public spending on child health was strongly related to decreasing fertility in the U.S. during the 1920s, possibly because of increased breastfeeding and decreased child mortality. This leads to a better understanding of the 1920s fertility decline and highlights how public policy may affect fertility.
Author's Affiliation
- Jonathan Fox - Freie Universität Berlin, Germany EMAIL
- Mikko Myrskylä - Max-Planck-Institut für Demografische Forschung, Germany EMAIL
Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research
Projection of US adult obesity trends based on individual BMI trajectories
Volume 51 - Article 13
Socio-behavioral factors contributing to recent mortality trends in the United States
Volume 51 - Article 7
Reproductive behavior following evacuation to foster care during World War II
Volume 33 - Article 1
The role of smoking on mortality compression: An analysis of Finnish occupational social classes, 1971-2010
Volume 32 - Article 20
Age-specific fertility by educational level in the Finnish male cohort born 1940‒1950
Volume 31 - Article 5
The effects of shocks in early life mortality on later life expectancy and mortality compression: A cohort analysis
Volume 22 - Article 12
Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research
Higher incomes are increasingly associated with higher fertility: Evidence from the Netherlands, 2008–2022
Volume 51 - Article 26
| Keywords:
fertility,
income,
inequalities,
Netherlands,
parenthood
The short- and long-term determinants of fertility in Uruguay
Volume 51 - Article 10
| Keywords:
fertility,
panel data,
stages of female reproductive life,
time series,
Uruguay
The big decline: Lowest-low fertility in Uruguay (2016–2021)
Volume 50 - Article 16
| Keywords:
adolescent fertility,
birth order,
fertility,
Latin America,
ultra-low fertility,
Uruguay
Cohort fertility of immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union
Volume 50 - Article 13
| Keywords:
age at first birth,
assimilation,
cohort analysis,
fertility,
immigration,
parity,
religiosity
Fertility decline, changes in age structure, and the potential for demographic dividends: A global analysis
Volume 50 - Article 9
| Keywords:
age structure,
demographic dividend,
demographic transition,
fertility,
migration,
population momentum,
working-age population
Cited References: 53
Download to Citation Manager
PubMed
Google Scholar