The price of virtue

Springer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 98 - Trang 111-129 - 1999
Margaret F. Brinig1, F.H. Buckley2
1George Mason University School of Law, Arlington, U.S.A.
2George Mason University Law School, U.S.A

Tóm tắt

This article offers new evidence on the determinants of U.S. unwed birth rates from 1981 to 1990. We show that illegitimacy rates are positively and significantly correlated with payments under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program over a period in which real AFDC payments declined. We attribute this result to a decline in the social sanctions for illegitimacy. Because social sanctions declined, so did the cost of deviance, as well as the price for which unwed women sold their virtue.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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