The Great Transition: Kuznets Facts for Family-Economists
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Degree type
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blue-collar jobs
calibration
college premium
education
family economics
fertility
housework
Kuznets
leisure
macroeconomics
market work
marriage
neutral technological progress
price of labor-saving household durables
skilled-biased technological change
theory-based identification
user guide
white-collar jobs
Demography, Population, and Ecology
Education
Family, Life Course, and Society
Gender and Sexuality
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Sociology
Work, Economy and Organizations
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Abstract
The 20th century beheld a dramatic transformation of the family. Some Kuznets style facts regarding structural change in the family are presented. Over the course of the 20th century in the United States fertility declined, educational attainment waxed, housework fell, leisure increased, jobs shifted from blue to white collar, and marriage waned. These trends are also observed in the cross-country data. A model is developed, and then calibrated, to address the trends in the US data. The calibration procedure is closely connected to the underlying economic logic. Three drivers of the great transition are considered: neutral technological progress, skill-biased technological change, and drops in the price of labor-saving household durables.