The Fertility Response to Cutting Child Related Welfare Benefits

Malte Sandner and Frederik Wiynck
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Frederik Wiynck: IAB

No 202201, IAB-Discussion Paper from Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]

Abstract: "Despite long-term interest whether welfare benefits motivate fertility, evidence from research has not been consistent. This paper contributes new evidence to this debate by investigating the fertility effect of a German welfare reform. The reform decreased the household income of families on welfare by 18 percent in the first year after the birth of a baby. Using exclusive German social security data on over 460,000 affected women, our analysis finds the reform leads to a fertility reduction of 6.8 percent. This result implies that for mothers on welfare, fertility has an income elasticity of 0.38, which is much smaller than that of general populations reported in the literature. Our findings suggest that welfare recipients’ fertility reacts less strongly to financial incentives than the fertility of overall populations." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Keywords: Bundesrepublik Deutschland; IAB-Open-Access-Publikation; Auswirkungen; Elterngeld; Einkommensanrechnung; Eltern; Familieneinkommen; Frauen; Fruchtbarkeit; Haushaltseinkommen; Mütter; Reformpolitik; Sozialhilfe; Sozialhilfeempfänger; 2005-2016 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C54 I38 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 pages
Date: 2022-01-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-eur and nep-lab
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Published in/as: Population Research and Policy Review, 42 (2023), 2, Art. 25, doi:10.1007/s11113-023-09757-3

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https://doi.org/10.48720/IAB.DP.2201

Related works:
Journal Article: The Fertility Response to Cutting Child-Related Welfare Benefits (2023)
Working Paper: The Fertility Response to Cutting Child-Related Welfare Benefits (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iab:iabdpa:202201

DOI: 10.48720/IAB.DP.2201

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