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Child policy ineffectiveness in an overlapping generations small open economy with human capital accumulation and public education

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  • Fanti, Luciano
  • Gori, Luca

Abstract

Motivated by the recent decrease in the number of children experienced in several developed countries, in this paper we consider a small open economy model with overlapping generations, endogenous fertility and human capital formation through public education, and look at the role the government can play in affecting fertility through the widely used child allowance policy. Contrary to conventional view, we show that the public provision of child allowances is fertility-neutral in the long run, that is it is not effective as a pro-natalist policy, while also reducing human capital accumulation. In contrast, the financing of the public education system is beneficial to both fertility and human capital. These results hold in the cases of both fixed and time cost of children.

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  • Fanti, Luciano & Gori, Luca, 2011. "Child policy ineffectiveness in an overlapping generations small open economy with human capital accumulation and public education," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 404-409.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:28:y:2011:i:1:p:404-409
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2010.08.008
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    2. Tim Krieger & Jens Ruhose, 2013. "Honey, I shrunk the kids’ benefits—revisiting intergenerational conflict in OECD countries," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 115-143, October.
    3. Gahramanov, Emin & Hasanov, Rashad & Tang, Xueli, 2020. "Parental involvement and Children's human capital: A tax-subsidy experiment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 16-29.
    4. Marisa Hidalgo, 2015. "Poverty in adulthood: personal and context factors. Evidence from some European countries," Working Papers 15.14, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    5. Magalhães, Graziella & Turchick, David, 2022. "Growth and inequality under different hierarchical education regimes," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
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    7. Miyake, Atsushi & Yasuoka, Masaya, 2016. "Public Education and Child-Care Policies with Pay-As-You-Go Pension," MPRA Paper 75315, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Wang, Ruiting & Xu, Gang, 2020. "Can child allowances improve fertility in a gender discrimination economy?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 162-174.
    9. Masaya Yasuoka, 2013. "Can Child-Care Support Policies Halt Decreasing Fertility?," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 3(2), pages 409-419.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Child allowance; Fertility; Public education; Small open economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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