Fertility and the Easterlin hypothesis: an assessment of the literature.
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Commerce↗
Biomedical subjects
D J Macunovich
Publications and source records attributed to D J Macunovich.
A conversation with Richard Easterlin.
"After an introduction touching on various biographical highlights, this paper summarizes a wide-ranging discussion with Richard Easterlin which occurred in the Autumn of 1996. We considered the Easterlin Hypothesis--its genesis and current status, together with Easterlin's views on attempts to develop measures of relative income--and then moved on to ¿The Fertility Revolution' and questions regarding the applicability of the theory of household choice in modernizing societies. This was followed by a discussion of his early career development and influences on him at that time, ending with ruminations regarding the current state of economics, and the validity of training given to young economists today."
Data Collection↗
Echoes of the baby boom and bust: recent and prospective changes in living alone among elderly widows in the United States.
Today the great majority of noninstitutionalized elderly widows live alone, a striking increase from a quarter-century ago. A noticeable difference has occurred, however, in trends by age; the proportion of the young-old widows living alone is starting to decline, while that of the old-old continues to increase. We use a model suggested by earlier studies to explain the emergence of this difference, and assess the prospects of its continuing over the next three decades. We find that the recent differential change in the proportions of younger and older widows living alone is due primarily to a differential change in kin availability that has emerged as the baby boomers' parents have begun to reach retirement age. Over the next decade, the same type of differential change by age in kin availability will continue; living alone is likely to become less common among young-old than among old-old widows, in a reversal of the pattern of the last quarter-century. In the first two decades of the next century, as the baby boom affects kin availability among the old-old, and as the subsequent baby bust affects that among the young-old, the age pattern of living arrangements among elderly widows will reverse once again.
Activities of Daily Living↗
Retirement prospects of the baby boom generation: a different perspective.
We examine the average economic status of baby boom cohorts as they approach retirement chiefly using data on their life cycle income experience to date. Contrary to popular impression, baby boomers are likely to enter old age in an even better economic position than pre-boom cohorts. Economic and demographic adjustments that they made, such as deferred marriages, reduced childbearing, and increased labor force participation of wives, have compensated for their relatively low wage rates. Potential downside effects of reduced childbearing regarding Social Security and health care prospects are discussed.
Adolescent↗