This dissertation consists of two essays studying macroeconomics questions about labor markets. The research in this document is separated into chapters that study distinct features of aggregate labor market outcomes. The first essay documents the change in behavior of fertility rate at business...

This dissertation contains three different essays, each of them adding conceptually and empirically to the existing literature on mortality and fertility. The first essay explores the role of chronic conditions onto the US educational differences on mortality. It proposes a model to decompose...

Two contemporary topics in fertility are investigated: late transitions to parenthood and low fertility. In the first essay, I use longitudinal data from the NLSY79 to investigate three explanations for educational differences in transitions to parenthood after age 30 in the U.S.: intentions,...

This study is conceived against the backdrop of deteriorating child survival circumstances in Kenya. It adopts a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the recent childhood mortality patterns using various demographic and statistical data and methods. We use the own-children method proposed by...

The deteriorating labor market position of young men has arguably played an important role in later and less frequent marriage since the 1970s. This dissertation examines the relationship between men's socioeconomic characteristics and marriage formation and the labor market causes of marriage...

This paper examines the impact of parental economic status and family size on the actual and expected fertility of adult children using longitudinal data from two generations of families participating in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. There was a modest positive relationship between first...

The oft-observed inverse relationship between economic activity in the formal or informal sector and levels of fertility is attributed to the opportunity costs of reproduction. The economic and social policies that initiate and maintain the substantial flow of federal transfer payments to the...

Sustained development requires efficient use of resources and equitable distribution of national income. Investment in human capital must be systematically organized in relation to other investments. Specifically, attrition in primary school is high, and the education does not respond...