IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pophec/v16y2017i2p152-173.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Children as negative externalities?

Author

Listed:
  • Serena Olsaretti

    (ICREA-Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain)

Abstract

Egalitarian theories assume, without defending it, the view that the costs of children should be shared between non-parents and parents. This standard position is called into question by the Parental Provision view. Drawing on the familiar idea that people should be held responsible for the consequences of their choices, the Parental Provision view holds that under certain conditions egalitarian justice requires parents to pay for the full costs of their children, as it would be unfair for non-parents to bear the negative externalities of others’ choices to have children. This article examines closely the Parental Provision view and argues that various possible justifications for it are unsuccessful. In so doing, it brings to light respects in which the choice to have and rear children is special and may not be treated as being on a par with other choices for which we think people should be held responsible.

Suggested Citation

  • Serena Olsaretti, 2017. "Children as negative externalities?," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 16(2), pages 152-173, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pophec:v:16:y:2017:i:2:p:152-173
    DOI: 10.1177/1470594X17706671
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1470594X17706671
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1470594X17706671?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:pophec:v:16:y:2017:i:2:p:152-173. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.