Abstract
Recently, economists have echoed demographers and sociologists, arguing that preference formation is important in shaping fertility decisions. Lesthaeghe and Surkyn (1988), prominent demographers, challenged economists to take up the role of preference formation in fertility outcomes more than 25 years ago. A recent literature on culture in economics has delivered empirical evidence on preference transmission mechanisms as well as quantitative general-equilibrium models of how families, communities, and other institutions interact with regard to the transmission of norms regulating sexual behavior and fertility. I review this literature on culture and fertility and discuss how social norms played an important role in shaping illegitimacy rates more than a hundred years ago as well as the take-up of modern contraceptive methods in Sweden.