This paper develops the theoretical foundations and the testable implications of the variousmechanisms that have been proposed as possible triggers for the demographic transition.Moreover, it examines the empirical validity of each of the theories and their significance forthe understanding of...

We examine the long-run relationship between fertility, mortality, and incomeusing panel cointegration techniques and the available data for the last century.Our main result is that mortality changes and growth of income per capita account for amajor part of the fertility change characterizing...

The evidence strongly suggests a robust negative relationship between income and fertility, anda positive relationship between income and longevity. This is puzzling for standard dynamicmodels. For instance, altruistic models that use the most standard preferences in macro-timeseparable CRRA...

State and federal reforms of the 1990s transformed the U.S. cash assistance program forsingle parents and their children. Despite an extensive literature examining these changesand their impacts, there have been few studies that consider the effects of these reformsfrom the perspective of the...

We study the effects of random assignment to coeducational andsingle-sex classes on the academic performance of female highschool students. Our estimation results show that single-sexschooling improves the performance of female students inmathematics. This positive effect increases if the...

Parental involvement in their children’s lives can have a lasting impact on wellbeing.More involved parents convey to their children that they are interested intheir development, and this in turn signals to the child that their future is valued.However, what happens in socio-economically...

We analyse the role of educational choice on the degree of occupational segregation in Trinidad and Tobago during a period in which educational policies intent on equating gender opportunities in education were implemented. To this end we utilise waves of the Trinidad and Tobago labour force...

This paper investigates the role that discrimination plays in the educational marginalizationof foreign youth commonly observed in European countries with a long guestworkertradition. Economic theory offers two basic explanations for discrimination ofthis form: taste-based discrimination arising...