Fertility effects of child benefits

Regina Riphahn and Frederik Wiynck

No 04/2016, FAU Discussion Papers in Economics from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics

Abstract: We exploit the 1996 reform of the German child benefit program to identify the causal effect of child benefits on fertility. Generally, the reform increased child benefits. However, the exact amount of the increase varied by household income and sibship size. We use this heterogeneity of the reform to identify causal effects on fertility using a difference-in-differences setting. We apply the large samples of the German Mikrozensus and the rich data of the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP). The child benefit reform did not yield robust or statistically significant fertility effects for low income couples. We find some support for positive fertility effects for higher income couples deciding on a second birth.

Keywords: child benefits; fertility; tax allowance; causal effect; difference-in-differences; Mikrozensus; SOEP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C54 I38 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Fertility effects of child benefits (2017)
Working Paper: Fertility Effects of Child Benefits (2017)
Working Paper: Fertility Effects of Child Benefits (2017)
Working Paper: Fertility Effects of Child Benefits (2017)
Working Paper: Fertility Effects of Child Benefits (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:iwqwdp:042016

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