Economic Analysis of Child Adoption: Empirical Research Using Historical Data in Japan and the U.S.

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24330075
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied economics
• Research Institution: Hitotsubashi University
• Principal Investigator: MORIGUCHI Chiaki 一橋大学, 経済研究所, 教授 (40569050)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): NOGUCHI Haruko 早稲田大学, 政治経済学術院, 教授 (90329318)
• Research Collaborator: JOHN Parman ウィリアム・アンド・メアリー大学, 経済学部, アシスタントプロフェッサー
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 養子制度 / 家族の経済学・ミクロ実証分析 / 日米比較 / 児童労働 / 要保護児童・児童福祉 / 比較経済史 / 二十世紀 / 教育格差

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The objective of this research is to explore the historical developments of child adoption in the U.S. and Japan and their welfare implications, using newly constructed datasets and the theoretical and empirical methods of the family economics. In a study using U.S. federal census microdata from 1880-1930 and 2000, I investigated changes in parental motivations for adoption over the 20th century and how they affected the human capital formation of adopted children in the U.S. This study generated many novel and important findings, and was well received at both domestic and international conferences. Informed by U.S. findings, I also examined child adoption in Japan and its role in improving children’s welfare from a comparative perspective, and compiled new prefecture panel data to investigate the determinants of adoption. From these studies, I gained useful insights for designing future policies and disseminated these findings to both academic and nonacademic audiences.

Free Research Field

家族の経済学、労働経済学、制度の経済学、比較経済史