Chronic Disease Burden and the Interaction of Education, Fertility, and Growth
The Review of Economics and Statistics
2009
open access
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 (1)
- Pages
- 52-65
- Language
- en
- Export
- BibTeX
- Sources
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