Intergenerational Transfers and the Fertility-Income Relationship

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cordoba, Juan Carlos; Ripoll, Marla
• 署名单位: Iowa State University; Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); University of Pittsburgh
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12197
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 949-977
• 关键词: demographic-transition; endogenous fertility; ECONOMIC-GROWTH; countries; CHILDREN; population; stagnation; DYNAMICS; models; CHOICE

摘要

Evidence from cross-sectional data reveals a negative relationship between family income and fertility. This article argues that constraints to intergenerational transfers are crucial for understanding this relationship. If parents could legally impose debt obligations on their children to recover the costs incurred in raising them, then fertility would be independent of parental income. A relationship between fertility and income arises when parents are unable to leave debts because of legal, enforcement or moral constraints. This relationship is negative when the intergenerational elasticity of substitution is larger than one, a case in which parental consumption is a good substitute for children's consumption.