Influence of women’s workforce participation and pensions on total fertility rate: a theoretical and econometric study

Tomáš Evan () and Pavla Vozárová ()
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Tomáš Evan: FIT CTU, AAUNI and UNYP
Pavla Vozárová: FIT CTU

Eurasian Economic Review, 2018, vol. 8, issue 1, No 3, 72 pages

Abstract: Abstract This paper explores the influence of the two historical and arguably most important correlates of fertility, i.e. female labor participation and pensions. We confirm the long-established negative impact of government provided pensions and all other welfare state social policies except pro-family ones on fertility between 1990 and 2013 in OECD countries. We also claim the reports about positive correlation between female labor participation and fertility, which caused a recent upsurge in research, to be spurious. Our results show a statistically insignificant relationship as a result of pro-family policies designed to offset the negative impact of female labor participation. We conclude that current societies in developed countries continue to have an unsustainable level of reproduction to an extent allowing depopulation, largely due to high and ever increasing female labor participation and a high level of social expenditure, particularly on pensions. We suggest an alternative set of pro-family and pro-natality policies and a decrease in social expenditure as a possible solution.

Keywords: Fertility; Labor market; Social government expenditures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H5 J13 N30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s40822-017-0074-0

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