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| Type | Working Paper |
| Scope | Discipline-based scholarship |
| Title | The Baby Boom and World War II: A Macroeconomic Analysis |
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| Institution | University of Zurich |
| Series Name | Working paper series / Institute for Empirical Research in Economics |
| Number | No. 355 |
| ISSN | 1424-0459 |
| Date | 2008 |
| Abstract Text | We argue that one major cause of the U.S. postwar baby boom was the increased demand for female labor during World War II. We develop a quantitativendynamic general equilibrium model with endogenous fertility and female labor-force participation decisions. We use the model to assess the long-term implications of a one-time demand shock for female labor, such as the one experienced by American women during wartime mobilization. For the war generation, the shock leads to a persistent increase in female labor supply due to the accumulation of work experience. In contrast, youngernwomen who turn adult after the war face increased labor-market competition, which impels them to exit the labor market and start having children earlier. In our calibrated model, this general-equilibrium effect generates a substantial baby boom followed by a baby bust, as well as patterns for agespecific labor-force participation and fertility rates that are consistent withnU.S data. |
| Official URL | http://www.econ.uzh.ch/wp.html |
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