Abstract
The annual numbers of births in the United States and in Canada have increased by more than 70 per cent in the past twenty years. In both countries an important component of this increase has been a change in the timing pattern of births. In addition to the spurious inflation of annual fer tility which such a timing change induces, mean parity for American cohorts has increased by 27 per cent because of a decline in the proportion of women with submodal fertility. The most likely explanation of this is a rise in real per- capita income among those who regulate childbearing.
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