Göksel, Türkmen Ankara Üniversitesi - department of economics, Turkey , Gürdal, Mehmet Y. boʇaziçi university - department of economics, Turkey , Orman, Cüneyt central bank of the republic of turkey, Turkey

The baby boom,baby busts,and the role of grandmothers in childcare

37373

Studies in family economics and anthropology suggest that grandmothers are a highly valuable source of childcare assistance. As such,the availability of grandmothers affects the cost of having children,and hence the fertility decisions of young parents. In this paper,we develop a simple model to assess the fertility implications of the fluctuations in both output (as argued by demographers) and grandmother-availability induced childcare costs over the period of 1920-1970. The model does a good job of mimicking the bust-boom-bust pattern during this period. When the child-care cost channel is shut down,the model s performance weakens significantly; in particular,it fails altogether to capture the bust in the 1960 s.

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Baby boom , Baby bust , Female labor , force participation , Fertility , Grandmother availability for childcare

Bogazici Journal

48