TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Zhang, Junfu
AU  - Song, Xue
        TI  - Fertility Differences between Married and Cohabiting Couples: A Switching Regression Analysis
        PY  - 2007/Dec/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 3245
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp3245
        AB  - Little is known about why cohabiting couples have fewer children than married couples. We explore the factors that explain the difference in fertility between these two groups using a switching regression analysis, which enables us to quantify the contribution of different factors through a decomposition of the difference. We find that married couples have more children than cohabiting couples primarily because marriage provides stronger incentives for specialization in household production. Unobserved self-selection plays a less important role.
        KW  - fertility
KW  - marriage
KW  - cohabitation
KW  - switching regression
KW  - self-selection
KW  - household specialization
        ER  -