Variety expansion and fertility ratesAkiko Maruyama and Kazuhiro Yamamoto No 07-29-Rev.2, Discussion Papers in Economics and Business from Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics Abstract: To investigate how fertility rates interrelate with the modern economy, we construct a simple model in which variety expansion of consumption goods reduces fertility rates. In our model, variety expansion reduces the relative price of a composite of differentiated goods compared to child- rearing costs. Thus, parents raise the expenditure share for differentiated goods and lower the number of children. We show that this model can be applied to a growth model in which economic growth progresses with variety expansion of consumption goods and fertility rates decrease with economic growth. In addition, we show that international trade, which raises consumption variety, lowers fertility rates. Thus, we show a new mechanism for fertility decline, and this mechanism can be applied to growth and international trade models. Keywords: Consumerism; Fertility rates; Variety expansion; Economic growth; International trade (search for similar items in EconPapers) There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osk:wpaper:0729r2 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Discussion Papers in Economics and Business from Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics Contact information at EDIRC. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.