Child Quality and the Demand for Children.

Dennis N. De Tray

Expert InsightsPublished 1972

Theoretical and empirical investigation of economic determinants of desired family size, in which child quality and numbers of children are substitutes in production of the household commodity "child services." Derived demand equations are developed for numbers of children and quality per child and are estimated using regression techniques and data from a 1960 cross-sectional sample of U.S. counties. Tentatively, female earnings and female education have significant separable effects on children ever born; the income elasticity for numbers of children is positive but small; and other things equal, blacks do not have more children than whites. The quality-per-child proxy (average public school investment) results indicate that female education increases efficiency of quality production more than numbers production; that income elasticities for numbers and quality are similar; and that tastes for quality per child are similar between rural and urban residents, blacks and whites, other things being equal. 55 pp.

Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web Only
  • Year: 1972
  • Pages: 55
  • Document Number: P-4838

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

De Tray, Dennis N., Child Quality and the Demand for Children. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1972. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P4838.html.
BibTeX RIS

This publication is part of the RAND paper series. The paper series was a product of RAND from 1948 to 2003 that captured speeches, memorials, and derivative research, usually prepared on authors' own time and meant to be the scholarly or scientific contribution of individual authors to their professional fields. Papers were less formal than reports and did not require rigorous peer review.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.