A Novel Way of Measuring the Endowment - 4 0 16; Stella Quimbo; 5 The Philippine Review of Economics. 53:1(June2016)pp.56-71
ABSTRACT : We test, using national survey data on Filipino Women, whether stated fertility preferences are stable and thus reliable measures of choice. We compare the expressed ideal number of children of two groups of matched women with that of another group having arguably more stable preferences. Using propensity score matching, we find that the stated ideal number of children is significantly higher thanthe control group with presumed stable preferences, by about 1 child among the poor and among older women. This difference suggest instability in fertility preferences, which may be due to moving fertility targets, cognitive dissonance or anomalous choice behavior arising from status - quo bias or endowment effects, with the prohibitive cost of giving up additional children causing an upward adjustment of fertility targets.
Keywords: 2 -- 0; 6; Fertility Preferences -- Endownment Effects; 20; 2