Fertility and Social Security

Michele Boldrin, Mariacristina De Nardi and Larry Jones

No 359, Staff Report from Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Abstract: The data show that an increase in government provided old-age pensions is strongly correlated with a reduction in fertility. What type of model is consistent with this finding? We explore this question using two models of fertility: one by Barro and Becker (1989), and one inspired by Caldwell (1978, 1982) and developed by Boldrin and Jones (2002). In Barro and Becker's model parents have children because they perceive their children's lives as a continuation of their own. In Boldrin and Jones' framework parents procreate because children care about their parents' utility, and thus provide them with old-age transfers. The effect of increases in government provided pensions on fertility in the Barro and Becker model is very small, whereas the effect on fertility in the Boldrin and Jones model is sizeable and accounts for between 55 and 65% of the observed Europe-U.S. fertility differences both across countries and across time.

Keywords: Social security; Financial markets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (64)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Fertility and Social Security (2015)
Journal Article: FERTILITY AND SOCIAL SECURITY (2015)
Working Paper: Fertility and Social Security (2005)
Working Paper: Fertility and Social Security (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedmsr:359

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