Intergenerational Transfers and the Fertility–Income Relationship

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9716561
AutoresJuan Carlos Córdoba (0000-0002-8895-1278, Iowa State University), Marla Ripoll (University of Pittsburgh)
Año2016
Volumen126
Número593
Páginas949-977
Fecha de publicación2016-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Economic Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0013-0133 • E-ISSN: 1468-0297
EditorialOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/ecoj.12197
OpenAlexW1969871687
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas27

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

Consumption (sociology · Debt · Demographic economics · Economics · Enforcement · Fertility · Labour economics · Macroeconomics · Political science · Population · Sociology · Demography · Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Global Health Care Issues · Law