Using data from the NLSY79, we structurally estimate a dynamic model of the life cycle decisions of young women. The women make joint and sequential decisions about school attendance, work, marriage, fertility and welfare participation. We use the model to perform a set of counterfactual...

Lifestyle and risk — concepts that are today so commonplace and popular that we tend to take their meaning (and social history) for granted. This is a mistake since none of them are either value-free or uncontested. Bringing them together — theoretically as much as with regard to policy —...