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Looking At The "Population Problem" Through The Prism Of Heterogeneity: Welfare And Policy Analyses

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  • C. Simon Fan
  • Oded Stark

Abstract

Upon introducing heterogeneity and dynamics into a model of the demand for children, a problem of optimal population is defined and analyzed. It is shown that from the perspective of social welfare, better-educated individuals produce too few children while less-educated individuals produce too many children and all individuals invest too little in the education of their children. The impact of several policy tools geared at addressing the "population problem" is investigated, in particular how child allowances and other tax-subsidy policies can be harnessed to enhance welfare, and how and why early childhood education programs can mitigate the "population problem." Copyright © 2008 the Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

Suggested Citation

  • C. Simon Fan & Oded Stark, 2008. "Looking At The "Population Problem" Through The Prism Of Heterogeneity: Welfare And Policy Analyses," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(3), pages 799-835, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:ier:iecrev:v:49:y:2008:i:3:p:799-835
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    Cited by:

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    2. de la Croix, David & Gosseries, Axel, 2012. "The natalist bias of pollution control," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 271-287.
    3. Thomas Baudin, 2011. "Family Policies: What Does the Standard Endogenous Fertility Model Tell Us?," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 13(4), pages 555-593, August.
    4. Yuki Uchida, 2015. "Education, Social Mobility, and Talent Mismatch," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 15-21, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    5. Yuki Uchida, 2018. "Education, social mobility, and the mismatch of talents," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 65(3), pages 575-607, May.
    6. Schoonbroodt, Alice & Tertilt, Michèle, 2014. "Property rights and efficiency in OLG models with endogenous fertility," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 551-582.
    7. Simon Fan & Yu Pang & Pierre Pestieau, 2020. "A model of the optimal allocation of government expenditures," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(4), pages 845-876, August.
    8. Takakura, Kei, 2023. "Child mortality, child labor, fertility, and demographics," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    9. Yew, Siew Ling & Zhang, Jie, 2013. "Socially optimal social security and education subsidization in a dynastic model with human capital externalities, fertility and endogenous growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 154-175.
    10. C. Fan & Jie Zhang, 2013. "Differential fertility and intergenerational mobility under private versus public education," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(3), pages 907-941, July.

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