FERTILITY AND THE EASTERLIN HYPOTHESIS - AN ASSESSMENT OF THE LITERATURE

Focusing just on the fertility aspects of the Easterlin hypothesis, th is paper offers a critical assessment - rather than just a selective c itation - of the extensive fertility literature generated by Easterlin , and a complete inventory of data and methodologies in seventy-six pu blished analyses. With an equal number of micro-and macro-level analys es using North American data (twenty-two), the ''track record'' of the hypothesis is the same in both venues, with fifteen providing signifi cant support in each case. The literature suggests unequivocal support for the relativity of the income concept in fertility, but is less cl ear regarding the source(s) of differences in material aspirations, an d suggests that the observed relationship between fertility and cohort size has varied across countries and time periods due to the effects of additional factors not included in most models.