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American Economic Review Vol. 92 No. 2 2002

The U.S. Demographic Transition

Jeremy Greenwood; Ananth Seshadri

Department of Economics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, and Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, respectively.

open access

Abstract

Between 1800 and 1940 the U.S. went through a dramatic demographic transition. In 1800 the average woman had 7 children, and 94 percent of the population lived in rural areas. By 1940 the average woman birthed just 2 kids, and only 43 percent of populace lived in the country. The question is: What accounted for this shift in the demographic landscape? The answer given here is that technological progress in agriculture and manufacturing explains these facts.

DOI
10.1257/000282802320189168
Volume
92
Issue
2
Pages
153-159
Language
en
Sources
crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex

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