Do Fertility Preferences Pass from Parents to Children? Evidence from the 1966 Romanian Abortion Ban

This paper analyzes to what extend fertility preferences correlates across generations, dealing with a largely understudied dimension of the demand for children. The paper exploits the abrupt implementation of the 1966 Romanian anti-abortion decree that discontinuously changed the composition of mothers in relation to their 'taste' for children. Using multiple Censuses, second-generation men and women born around the policy implementation are followed over their lives to study how the socio-economic status and fertility preferences of their parents affect their own reproductive behavior. Methodologically, the paper combines elements of the regression discontinuity design and the Heckman's selection model. Results indicate that the intergenerational fertility correlation ranges from 0.15 to 0.25. One-third of this correlation is explained by inherited socio-economic status and two-thirds by 'inherited' preferences