Endogenous Fertility Waves and the Dynamics of Utility in an Overlapping Generations Model

Wolfgang Kuhle

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: This paper investigates the conditions under which the Easterlin hypothesis holds within a neoclassical overlapping generations model with endogenous capital accumulation, wages, interest rates, and fertility. We develop a tractable analytical framework that maps economic transitions into utility space via a continuously differentiable first-order difference equation for cohort lifetime utilities. This reformulation allows for a transparent normative evaluation of non-steady-state paths without requiring explicit solutions to the underlying nonlinear system. Within this framework, we show that when fertility cycles emerge and children are normal goods, the utility of small cohorts strictly exceeds that of large cohorts. Crucially, this cohort-welfare asymmetry is driven by fertility preferences and is independent of the economy's position relative to the golden rule.

Date: 2026-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.02362 Latest version (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:arx:papers:2606.02362

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Papers from arXiv.org
Bibliographic data for series maintained by arXiv administrators ().