Timing of childbearing and economic growth

This paper incorporates the timing of childbearing into a growth model with endogenous fertility. It analyzes a model in which individuals' human capi tal stock depends positively on their education and parental human capital and in which producing and raising children and acquiring human capital are time intensive. The model highlights how changes in the human capital stoc k interact with individuals' timing of childbearing in affecting the evolut ion of the economy. It shows that increases in the human capital stock rais e the opportunity cost of having children while young and induce individual s to delay childbearing. That, in turn, accelerates human capital accumulat ion in the future. The model also demonstrates that early childbearing may lead to a development trap with low human capital. (C) 2000 Elsevier Scienc e B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: J13; J24; O11; O40.