The Demand for Season of Birth

56 Pages Posted: 8 Aug 2016 Last revised: 20 May 2023

See all articles by Damian Clarke

Damian Clarke

University of Oxford - Department of Economics; Market Imperfections and Public Policy (MiPP); University of Exeter; University of Chile

Sonia Oreffice

University of Surrey

Climent Quintana-Domeque

University of Oxford

Abstract

We study the determinants of season of birth of the first child, for white married women aged 25-45 in the US, using birth certificate and Census data. We also analyze stated preferences for season of birth using our own Amazon Mechanical Turk survey.The prevalence of quarters 2 and 3 is significantly related to mother's age, education, and smoking status during pregnancy. Moreover, those who did not use assisted reproductive technology present a higher prevalence of these births. The frequency of April to September births is also higher and more strongly related to mother's age in states where cold weather is more severe, and varies with mother's occupation, exhibiting a particularly strong positive association with working in "education, training, and library" occupations. Remarkably, this relationship between season and weather disappears for mothers in "education, training, and library" occupations, revealing that season of birth is a matter of choice and preferences, not simply a biological mechanism.We find that the average willingness to pay for season of birth of mothers who report to have chosen season of birth is 19% of financial wealth while for those who report not to have chosen it is only 2% and not statistically different from zero, with the former always targeting an April to September birth. In addition, the average willingness to pay for season of birth is higher among individuals, and parents, in "education, training, and library" occupations. We also document that the top-3 reasons for choosing season of birth are mother's wellbeing, child's wellbeing, and job requirements, while those in "education, training, and library" occupations rank job requirements as the most important reason. Finally, we present evidence that babies born between April and September have on average better health at birth even conditional on the observable maternal characteristics which predict selection.

Keywords: ACS, willingness to pay, birth outcomes, first birth, teachers, pregnancy, quarter of birth, NVSS, Amazon Mechanical Turk, fertility timing

JEL Classification: I10, J01, J13

Suggested Citation

Clarke, Damian and Oreffice, Sonia and Quintana-Domeque, Climent, The Demand for Season of Birth. IZA Discussion Paper No. 10072, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2819353 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2819353

Damian Clarke (Contact Author)

University of Oxford - Department of Economics ( email )

Manor Road Building
Manor Road
Oxford, OX1 3BJ
United Kingdom

Market Imperfections and Public Policy (MiPP) ( email )

University of Exeter ( email )

Northcote House
The Queen's Drive
Exeter, Devon EX4 4QJ
United Kingdom

University of Chile ( email )

Pío Nono Nº1, Providencia
Santiago, R. Metropolitana 7520421
Chile

Sonia Oreffice

University of Surrey ( email )

Guildford
Guildford, Surrey GU2 5XH
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/soniaoreffice/

Climent Quintana-Domeque

University of Oxford ( email )

Mansfield Road
Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 4AU
United Kingdom

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