Family Planning and Development: Aggregate Effects of Contraceptive Use

Tiago Cavalcanti, Georgi Kocharakov and Cezar Santos
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Georgi Kocharkov

No 14329, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: What is the role of family planning interventions on fertility, savings, human capital investment, and development? To examine this, endogenous unwanted fertility is embedded in an otherwise standard quantity-quality overlapping generations model of fertility and growth. The model features costly fertility control and families can (partially) insure against a fertility risk by using costly modern contraceptives. In the event of unexpected pregnancies, households can also opt to abort some pregnancies, at a cost. Given the number of children born, parents decide how much education to provide and how much to save out of their income. We fit the model to Kenyan data, implement several family planning policies and decompose their aggregate effects. Our results suggest that with a small government budget (say, up to 0.5 percent of GDP), family planning interventions might be more cost-effective in improving longrun living standards than policies that subsidise basic education.

Keywords: Education; Income per capita; Contraception; Abortion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 I15 J13 O11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-dge, nep-gro and nep-mac
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Family Planning and Development: Aggregate Effects of Contraceptive Use (2021)
Working Paper: Family Planning and Development: Aggregate Effects of Contraceptive Use (2018)
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