Working Paper: NBER ID: w26047
Authors: Owen Thompson
Abstract: Large black-white fertility differences are a key feature of US demography, and are closely related to the broader dynamics of US racial inequality. To better understand the origins and determinants of racial fertility differentials, this paper examines fertility patterns in the period surrounding passage and implementation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which precipitated a period of rapid socioeconomic and political progress among African Americans, with these gains strongly concentrated in the South. I first show that the relative fertility of southern black women precipitously declined immediately after 1964. Specifically, as of 1964 the general fertility rate of southern black women was 53 births greater than the general fertility rate of southern white women, but by 1969 this gap had fallen to 33 births, a decline of approximately 40% in five years. The black-white fertility gap outside of the South was unchanged over this period. Measures of completed childbearing similarly show rapid black-white fertility convergence in the South but not in the North. An analysis of potential mechanisms finds that a substantial share of the observed fertility convergence can be explained by relative improvements in the earnings of southern blacks, and that the historical intensity of slavery and lynching activity are the strongest spacial correlates of fertility convergence
Keywords: fertility; civil rights; racial inequality
JEL Codes: J13; J71; J78
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| improvements in earnings of southern blacks (J79) | decline in fertility rates of southern black women (J13) |
| historical intensity of slavery and lynching activity (N91) | fertility convergence (J19) |
| changes in discriminatory institutions (J79) | reduction in black-white fertility gap (J19) |
| 1964 Civil Rights Act (J71) | decline in fertility rates of southern black women (J13) |