The Introduction of Bismarck's Social Security System and its Effects on Marriage and Fertility in Prussia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4119980 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Timothy W Guinnane (0000-0002-3716-0011), Jochen Streb (0000-0001-7812-7923) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 749-780 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Population and Development Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0098-7921 • E-ISSN: 1728-4457 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/padr.12426 |
| OpenAlex | W3153555531 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 49 |
Economists have long argued that introducing social insurance will reduce fertility. The hypothesis relies on standard models: if children are desirable in part because they provide security in case of disability or old age, then State programs that provide insurance against these events should induce couples to substitute away from children in the allocation of wealth. We test this claim using the introduction of social insurance in Germany in the period 1881-1910. Bismarck's social insurance scheme had three pillars: health insurance, workplace accident insurance, and an old-age pension. Earlier studies typically focus on the pension alone; we consider all three pillars. We find that Bismarck's social insurance system affected fertility overall only via its effects on the incentive to marry. The old-age insurance by itself tended to reduce marriages, but the health and accident insurance components had the opposite effect. For people exposed to all three pillars of social insurance, the two effects cancelled each other and the aggregate effect on fertility was muted.fertility transition; economics; social insurance
Actuarial science · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Fertility · Health care · Health insurance · Incentive · Microeconomics · Pension · Population · Self-insurance · Social insurance · Social security · Sociology · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Finance · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Global Health Care Issues
The Impact of Social Security on Saving and Fertility in Germany
Das Wachstum der deutschen Wirtschaft seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts
Demographic Behavior in the Past
New Estimates of Fertility and Population in the United States
The Historical Fertility Transition
Chapter 8 Demand for children in low income countries
The population history of England, 1541-1871
Bismarck's Institutions
The effect of investment in children’s education on fertility in 1816 Prussia
A Reformulation of the Economic Theory of Fertility
Births, Deaths, and New Deal Relief during the Great Depression
Fertility impact of high-coverage public pensions in sub-Saharan Africa
A two-tiered demographic system
Pensions and fertility
Ipehd—The ifo Prussian Economic History Database
What Do We Know About the Timing of Fertility Transitions in Europe
Social Security, Induced Retirement, and Aggregate Capital Accumulation
A Theory of Marriage
Welfare State and Labor Mobility
Coping with Crisis? The Diffusion of Waterworks in Late Nineteenth-Century German Towns
A Compromise Estimate of German Net National Product, 1851–1913, and its Implications for Growth and Business Cycles
Infant mortality decline in rural and urban Bavaria
Old times, better times? German miners' Knappschaften , pay-as-you-go pensions, and implicit rates of return, 1854–1913
Fertility transition in a rural, Catholic population
Was Weber Wrong? A Human Capital Theory of Protestant Economic History
Moral Hazard in a Mutual Health Insurance System
Weber Revisited
Incentives That (Could Have) Saved Lives
The Emergence of a Two-Child Norm among American Birth-Controllers
Law, marriage and illegitimacy in nineteenth-century Germany
Fertility Decline in Prussia, 1875-1910
Sanitary infrastructures and the decline of mortality in Germany, 1877-1913
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2024 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |