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A Reformulation of the Economic Theory of Fertility
Abstract
Altruistic parents choose fertility and consumption by maximizing a dynastic utility function. The maximization implies an arbitrage condition for consumption across generations, and equality between the benefit from an extra child and the child-rearing cost. These conditions imply that fertility in open economies depends positively on the world's long-term real interest rate, the degree of altruism, and the growth of child-survival probabilities; and negatively on the rate of technical progress and the growth rate of social security. The growth of per capita consumption across generations depends on changes in the child-rearing cost, but not on interest rates or time preference.
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Citations
Cited by
Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogeneous Growth
Barro, R. J. (1990) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/261726 · Cited by 6,340
Self-citationHuman Capital, Fertility, and Economic Growth
Becker, G. S., Murphy, K. M., & Tamura, R. (1990) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/261723 · Cited by 1,988
Self-citationChen, M. K. (2013) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.103.2.690 · Cited by 745
The Economics of Human Development and Social Mobility
Heckman, J. J., & Mosso, S. (2014) · Annual Review of Economics · doi:10.1146/annurev-economics-080213-040753 · Cited by 940
Demographic Change and Economic Growth in Asia
BLOOM, D. E., & FINLAY, J. E. (2009) · Asian Economic Policy Review · doi:10.1111/j.1748-3131.2009.01106.x · Cited by 434
Metadata
- Authors
- Becker, G. S., & Barro, R. J.
- Venue
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1988-02
- Volume
- 103
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1
- ISSN
- 0033-5533 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2104095103
- Cited by
- 1,374
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 19.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Becker, G. S., & Barro, R. J. (1988). A Reformulation of the Economic Theory of Fertility. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. https://doi.org/10.2307/1882640
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