Parenthood and Pension Wealth: The Long-Term Impact of Children on Retirement Savings

Population ageing and declining fertility challenge public pension systems and raise concerns about financial preparedness for retirement. While wealth accumulation depends on socioeconomic characteristics such as income, education, and health, family size may also shape long-term saving outcomes. Two competing mechanisms may operate: childrearing may reduce wealth accumulation through higher expenditures and lower labour supply, while parents may also accumulate wealth to secure retirement and support their children's transition to adulthood. Using data from Wave 9 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this study examines the association between completed fertility and household wealth among individuals aged 50 and older in the Czech Republic. We analyze more than 2,000 households using ordinary least squares regression with multiple imputation and Rubin's rules. The analysis tests for non-linear fertility effects, distinguishes between real and nancial assets, explores age heterogeneity, and conducts robustness checks using alternative wealth definitions and restricted age samples. We find that fertility is more strongly associated with the accumulation of real assets than with financial wealth, consistent with the Czech-specific preference for saving through housing and other real assets. We also observe cohort-specific patterns linked to the pronatalist policies of the 1970s in Czechoslovakia, highlighting the potential importance of policies that reduce the economic burden of childrearing for young families. However, institutional and cohort-specific contexts should be taken into account when interpreting these results.