Society of the Economics of the Household (SEHO): Frontiers in Household Economics
Paper Session
Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM (PST)
- Chair: Shoshana Grossbard, San Diego State University
Empowerment or Immiseration? The Pill and a Century of Unwed Childbearing
Abstract
Prominent theories posit that fertility control liberalization contributed to rising unwed childbearing, an immiseration effect. This view is challenged by studying local oral contraceptive sales and fertility data surrounding the pill's introduction in Sweden. I present a model where women's demand for premarital sex is a function of customs for preventing unwed birth and equilibrium determined promiscuity norms. These factors jointly determine past unwed birth and demand for contraceptive innovations. Sales data confirm 19th Century unwed birth to be a positive and highly robust predictor of the pill's adoption. The theory motivates an empirical model which is used to estimate how pill use shaped unwed birth. The data reveal how the pill's diffusion reduced unwed childbearing among teens, consistent with the model predictions. The rising share of births occurring out-of-wedlock is driven by a decline in marital childbearing that coincided with the pill’s introduction but is uncorrelated with the extent of pill use in a market, consistent with an empowerment effect. Empirical evidence on how the pill's diffusion altered "shotgun-marriage" and the gains to marriage among the young are presented and discussed.Marital Stability and Consumption Sharing
Abstract
Having a stable marriage, one in which both spouses believe they are better off together relative to apart, is an important determinant in how couples interact. The couple's perceived risk of divorce has the potential to impact how husbands and wives invest in their financial future, allocate labor supply, and pool their resources, as uncertainty may limit the gains from marriage. We examine which factors are predictive of unstable marriages using a unique panel data set of Japanese couples. We employ several machine learning and econometric techniques to identify which characteristics are most associated with a higher divorce probability. We find time-varying aspects of the couple, such as the wife's income and labor supply are most predictive, while characteristics of the couple at the time of marriage, such as age and parental characteristics, are less so. We relate these findings to the theoretical literature on the drivers of divorce.Pregnancy, Food Purchases and Nutritional Quality
Abstract
Pregnancy is a critical period for health investments, bolstered by extensive public health guidance and evidence that healthy prenatal environments foster child development with lifelong benefits. We provide new evidence on the impact of conception on nutritional choices during pregnancy and infancy, using an event study and household scanner data. Households make considerable healthy adjustments in alcohol and fruit purchases. Yet, despite these, the nutritional quality of food choices, measured using the FSA's nutrient profiling model, declines substantially during pregnancy. The magnitude of the decline amounts to 50% of the mean difference in nutritional quality between a normal weight and an obese individual. It is caused largely by increased purchases of ultra-processed, high-sugar foods currently in the focus of food regulation.The deterioration of nutritional quality varies little by socio-economic status, pregnancy risk factors and food price environments, resulting in a fairly universal in-utero exposure to less healthy food environments.
Discussant(s)
Gabriella Conti
,
University College London
Elena Stancanelli
,
Paris School of Economics
Arthur Lewbel
,
Boston College
Enrica Croda
,
Ca Foscari Venice University
JEL Classifications
- J1 - Demographic Economics
- J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs