TY - JOUR
T1 - Private incentives and social interactions
T2 - Fertility puzzles in Israel
AU - Manski, Charles F.
AU - Mayshar, Joram
PY - 2003/3
Y1 - 2003/3
N2 - This paper explores how private and social incentives for fertility may have combined to produce the complex fertility pattern observed in Israel in the past half-century. Fertility has declined within some ethnic-religious groups, moderately increased in others, and parts of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish population have experienced a reverse fertility transition, in which childbearing has increased rapidly and substantially. We present a theoretical analysis of the social dynamics of fertility that shows how private preferences, preferences for conformity to social norms in childbearing, and piecewise linear child allowances could have combined to yield such a complex fertility pattern. We then explain the identification problem that makes it so difficult to infer the actual Israeli fertility process from data on completed fertility.
AB - This paper explores how private and social incentives for fertility may have combined to produce the complex fertility pattern observed in Israel in the past half-century. Fertility has declined within some ethnic-religious groups, moderately increased in others, and parts of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish population have experienced a reverse fertility transition, in which childbearing has increased rapidly and substantially. We present a theoretical analysis of the social dynamics of fertility that shows how private preferences, preferences for conformity to social norms in childbearing, and piecewise linear child allowances could have combined to yield such a complex fertility pattern. We then explain the identification problem that makes it so difficult to infer the actual Israeli fertility process from data on completed fertility.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33645261419&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1162/154247603322256800
DO - 10.1162/154247603322256800
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???
AN - SCOPUS:33645261419
SN - 1542-4766
VL - 1
SP - 181
EP - 211
JO - Journal of the European Economic Association
JF - Journal of the European Economic Association
IS - 1
ER -