Fertility, Female Labor Supply, and Family Policy

Hans Fehr () and Daniela Ujhelyiova

No 331, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: The present paper develops a general equilibrium model with overlapping generations and endogenous fertility in order to analyze the interaction between public policy and household labor supply and fertility decisions. The model's benchmark equilibrium reflects the current family policy as well as the differential fertility pattern of educational groups in Germany. Then we simulate alternative reforms of child benefits and family taxation that increase the long-run fertility and growth rate of the economy. Our simulations indicate two central results: First, although households are typically hurt by the first-order effects of family policy, it is possible to generate long-run welfare gains due to positive second-order effects from induced changes in the population structure. Second, specific family policies could be designed that yield a joint increase of the fertility rate and female employment rate as observed in cross-country studies.

Keywords: stochastic fertility; general equilibrium life cycle model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 p.
Date: 2010
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cmp, nep-dge, nep-lab and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.363554.de/diw_sp0331.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Fertility, Female Labor Supply, and Family Policy (2013)
Working Paper: Fertility, Female Labor Supply, and Family Policy (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp331

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