Comparative advantage, international trade, and fertility

Quy-Toan Do, Andrei Levchenko and Claudio Raddatz

No 6930, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper analyzes theoretically and empirically the impact of comparative advantage in international trade on fertility. It builds a model in which industries differ in the extent to which they use female relative to male labor and countries are characterized by Ricardian comparative advantage in either female labor or male labor intensive goods. The main prediction of the model is that countries with comparative advantage in female labor intensive goods are characterized by lower fertility. This is because female wages and therefore the opportunity cost of children are higher in those countries. The paper demonstrates empirically that countries with comparative advantage in industries employing primarily women exhibit lower fertility. The analysis uses a geography-based instrument for trade patterns to isolate the causal effect of comparative advantage on fertility.

Keywords: Economic Theory&Research; Labor Policies; Population Policies; Labor Markets; Trade Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-06-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-gro and nep-int
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Comparative advantage, international trade, and fertility (2016)
Working Paper: Comparative Advantage, International Trade, and Fertility (2015)
Working Paper: Comparative Advantage, International Trade, and Fertility (2015)
Working Paper: Comparative Advantage, International Trade, and Fertility (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6930

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