The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 91 No. 1 2009
Chronic Disease Burden and the Interaction of Education, Fertility, and Growth
open access
Abstract
This study considers the eradication of hookworm disease from the American South as a test of the quantity-quality (Q-Q) framework of fertility. Eradication was principally a shock to the price of quality because of three factors: hookworm (i) depresses the return to human-capital investment, (ii) had a very low case-fatality rate, and (iii) had negligible prevalence among adults. Consistent with the Q-Q model, we find a significant decline in fertility associated with eradication. Relative sizes of fertility and human-capital responses to hookworm indicate that the Q-Q mechanism is of a similar magnitude to secular co-movements in these same variables.
- DOI
- 10.1162/rest.91.1.52
- Volume
- 91
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 52-65
- Language
- en
- Sources
- openalex crossref