Soap Operas and Fertility: Evidence from Brazil

We estimate the effect of television on fertility in Brazil, where soap operas portray small families. We exploit differences in the timing of entry into different markets of Globo, the main novela producer. Women living in areas covered by Globo have significantly lower fertility. The effect is str...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American economic journal. Applied economics 2012-10, Vol.4 (4), p.1-31
Main Authors: La Ferrara, Eliana, Chong, Alberto, Duryea, Suzanne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Age groups
Applied economics
Births
Children
Development banks
Economic models
Economic statistics
Economic theory
Economics
Education
Estimating techniques
Families & family life
Female fertility
Fertility
Fertility rates
Households
Names
Popular culture
Soap operas
Social conditions & trends
Social research
Standard error
Studies
Television
Variable coefficients
Women
Womens education
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We estimate the effect of television on fertility in Brazil, where soap operas portray small families. We exploit differences in the timing of entry into different markets of Globo, the main novela producer. Women living in areas covered by Globo have significantly lower fertility. The effect is strongest for women of lower socioeconomic status and in the central and late phases of fertility, consistent with stopping behavior. The result does not appear to be driven by selection in Globo entry. We provide evidence that novelas, and not just television, affected individual choices, based on children's naming patterns and novela content.
ISSN:1945-7782
1945-7790
DOI:10.1257/app.4.4.1