Childbearing Age, Family Allowances and Social Security

Pierre Pestieau (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) , Grégory Ponthière (1, 2, 6)

1 PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques
2 PSE - Paris School of Economics
3 CREPP - Center of Research in Public Economics and Population Economics
4 CORE - Center of Operation Research and Econometrics [Louvain]
5 CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research
6 ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris

Although the optimal policy under endogenous fertility has been widely studied, the optimal public intervention under endogenous childbearing age has remained largely unexplored. This paper examines the optimal family policy in a context where the number and the timing of births are chosen by individuals who differ as to how early fertility can weaken future earnings growth. We analyze the design of a policy of family allowances and of public pensions in such a setting, under distinct informational environments. We show how endogenous childbearing ages affect the optimalpolicy, through the redistribution across the earnings dimension and the internalization of fertility externalities. It is also shown that, contrary to common practice, children benefits differentiated according to the age of parents can, under some conditions, be part of the optimal family policy.

Mots clés: endogenous fertility; childbearing age; family benefits

Domaines: Economies et finances

Pierre Pestieau, Grégory Ponthière. Childbearing Age, Family Allowances and Social Security. 2011. ⟨hal-00612613v2⟩