A Quantitative Analysis of Swedish Fertility Dynamics: 1751-1990

This paper analyzes the relationship between age-specific fertility, mortality and real wages in Sweden during the demographic transition. We take an overlapping generations model of life cycle fertility and fit it to actual Swedish time-series data over the past two and a half centuries. The model fits the data well, accurately portraying the total fertility decline for more than four children per female before the mid-19'th century to about two children today.