PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Schaller, Jessamyn
TI  - Booms, Busts, and Fertility
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.51.1.1
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 1--29
VI  - 51
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/51/1/1.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/51/1/1.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2016 Jan 01; 51
AB  - In this paper, I present estimates of the effect of local labor demand shocks on birth rates. To identify exogenous variation in male and female labor demand, I create indices that exploit cross-sectional variation in industry composition, changes in gender-education composition within industries, and growth in national industry employment. Consistent with economic theory, I find that improvements in men’s labor market conditions are associated with increases in fertility while improvements in women’s labor market conditions have smaller negative effects. I separately find that increases in unemployment rates are associated with small decreases in birth rates at the state level.