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Dead men tell no tales: the role of cultural transmission in demographic change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2021

Roman Zakharenko Open the ORCID record for Roman Zakharenko [Opens in a new window]
Roman Zakharenko*
Affiliation:
National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: rzakharenko@hse.ru
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Abstract

The paper explains long-term changes in birth, death rates, and in attitude to personal consumption by evolution of preferences by means of cultural transmission. When communities are culturally isolated, they are focused on population growth, which results in large fertility and welfare transfers to children, limited adult consumption, and lack of old-age support. With increasing cultural contact across communities, successful cultural traits induce their hosts to increase their social visibility by limiting fertility and increasing longevity via higher individual consumption. Empirical analysis confirms that social visibility, as measured by the number of language versions of Wikipedia biographical pages, is associated with fewer children and longer lifespan. The presence of notable individuals precedes reduced aggregate birth rates.

Keywords

Cultural transmissiondemographic transitionsocial influence

JEL classification

Z19: Other J11: Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts J14: Economics of the Elderly • Economics of the Handicapped • Non-Labor Market Discrimination J13: Fertility • Family Planning • Child Care • Children • Youth
Type
Research Paper
Information
Journal of Demographic Economics , Volume 87 , Issue 4 , December 2021 , pp. 511 - 536
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with Université catholique de Louvain.

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