The gender gap, fertility, and growth

This paper examines a novel mechanism linking fertility and growth. There are three components to the model: first, increases in capital per worker raise women's relative wages, since capital is more complementary to women's labor input than to men's. Second, increasing women's relative wages reduces fertility by raising the cost of children more than household income. And third, lower fertility mises the level of capital per worker. This positive feedback loop generates a demographic transition. a rapid decline in fertility accompanied by accelerated output growth.