Citation

Wright RE. Popul. Dev. Rev. 1989; 15(1): 107-122.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, Population Council, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Richard Easterlin has argued that fertility should fluctuate cyclically depending on the relative economic status of young adults. Evidence in support of this hypothesis has been derived primarily from the experience of the United States. This note explores the relevance of the "Easterlin hypothesis" in the European context. For a sample of Western European countries, simple time-series regression models are estimated and Granger causality tests are performed. Only limited support for the hypothesis is found.