Baby Boom and Baby Bust in Gender-Gap Model: A Quantitative Analysis

Abstract

This paper explores what factor is important to replicate U.S. fertility transition in the last two centuries. We solve a multiperiod version of the model of Kimura and Yasui (J Econ Growth 15(4):323-351, 2010) numerically, conducting several experiments based on it. We find that the main trend of fertility transition in the last two centuries is attributed to changes in gender division of labor associated with capital accumulation and technological progress, the plunge during 1920-1940 to negative shocks on male labor supply by the World War II, and the upswing during 1940-1965 to an atypical burst of technological progress in household sector.