Journal
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POPULATION-REVUE EUROPEENNE DE DEMOGRAPHIE
Volume 36, Issue 1, Pages 141-169Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10680-019-09524-1
Keywords
Seasonality of births; Seasonality of marriages; Energy balance; Economic development; Agricultural calendar
Categories
Funding
- Fondo per il finanziamento dei dipartimenti universitari di eccellenza [232/2016]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
According to the energy balance mechanism theory, female ovarian function is strongly hindered by even a modest negative energy balance (the difference between calorie intake and calorie consumption). Agriculture-based economies were characterized by periods of extremely intense workload (especially in summer when grain was harvested) without sufficient nutrition. We analyze the role of the intensity of agricultural workload (proxied by marriage seasonality) on seasonal oscillations in births. Using data at the regional level, from Italian Unification to the eve of the World War I, we find some empirical support for the energy balance theory. In particular, we find the strength of the relationship between marriage seasonality and birth seasonality to be lower in the more developed Northern part of the Italian country, in which some signs of industrialization had already been present.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available