This paper analyses the effects of the introduction of child-subsidy support policies extending recent overlapping generations (OLG) models to account for endogenous fertility decisions of individuals and publicly provided pensions in a small open economy with preferences for both child quantity and child quality. It is shown that if the preference for the quality of children is higher than the preference for the quantity of children, as casual observations seem to reveal in developed countries, then child subsidies always reduce the fertility rate. This way, the article provides an explanation for possible failures of pro-natalist policies based on child subsidisation implemented in many western countries, which may therefore result as fertility disincentives instead of fertility incentives.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (John P. Conley).
Related research
Keywords:
Find related papers by JEL classification: J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: