Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-kw2vx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-09T12:34:17.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A note on contraception, social norms, and growth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2022

Tiago Cavalcanti ,
Georgi Kocharkov  and
Cezar Santos
Tiago Cavalcanti*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge Sao Paulo School of Economics - FGV
Georgi Kocharkov
Affiliation:
Deutsche Bundesbank
Cezar Santos
Affiliation:
Bank of Portugal FGV EPGE
*
*Corresponding author: Tiago Cavalcanti. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We introduce contraceptives and social norms in an overlapping generations growth model of fertility and human capital. Parents can use costly modern contraceptives to control their family size, and each household’s fertility decision is influenced by the decisions made by others. Given the number of children born, parents decide how much education to provide and how much to save out of their income. We characterize the local dynamics of a stable steady-state equilibrium. Around this steady state, family planning interventions, which reduce the price of modern contraceptives, decrease fertility and increase human and physical capital. The effects of family planning interventions are larger when reproductive externalities are stronger.

Keywords

Educationcontraceptionsocial normsincomeI15J13O11
Type
Articles
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , April 2023 , pp. 869 - 878
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

**

Financial support from the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001 and Faperj is gratefully acknowledged. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Bank of Portugal and the Deutsche Bundesbank.

References

Barro, R. J. and Becker, G. S. (1989) Fertility choice in a model of economic growth. Econometrica 57(2), 481–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basso, A. and Cuberes, D. (2017) Deep-rooted determinants of the fertility transition across countries. Macroeconomic Dynamics 21(7), 1712–1751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baudin, T., de la Croix, D. and Gobbi, P. (2018) Endogenous childlessness and stages of development. Journal of the European Economic Association 18(1), 83–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baudin, T., De La Croix, D. and Gobbi, P. E. (2015) Fertility and childlessness in the United States. American Economic Review 105(6), 1852–1882.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Becker, G. S. (1960) An economic analysis of fertility. In: Roberts, G. B. (ed.), Demographic and Economic Change in Developed Countries , Universities-National Bureau Committee for Economic Research, pp. 209–240. Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Cavalcanti, T., Kocharkov, G. and Santos, C. (2021) Family planning and development: Aggregate effects of contraceptive use. The Economic Journal 131(634), 624–657.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dasgupta, P. (2000) Reproductive externalities and fertility behaviour. European Economic Review 44(4–6), 619–644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de la Croix, D. and Doepke, M. (2003) Inequality and growth: Why differential fertility matters. American Economic Review 93(4), 1091–1113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Silva, T. and Tenreyro, S. (2020) The fall in global fertility: A quantitative model. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 12(3), 77–109.Google Scholar
Doepke, M. (2015) Gary Becker on the quantity and quality of children. Journal of Demographic Economics 81(1), 59–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernández, R. and Fogli, A. (2009) Culture: An empirical investigation of beliefs, work, and fertility. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 1(1), 146–177.Google Scholar
Fernández-Villaverde, J., Greenwood, J. and Guner, N. (2014) From shame to game in one hundred years: An economic model of the rise in premarital sex and its de-stigmatization. Journal of the European Economic Association 12(1), 25–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, E., Molitor, V., Schoonbroodt, A. and Tertilt, M. (2016) Gender gaps in completed fertility. Journal of Demographic Economics 82(2), 167–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galor, O. and Weil, D. N. (2000) Population, technology, and growth: From Malthusian stagnation to the demographic transition and beyond. American Economic Review 90(4), 806–828.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iftikhar, Z. (2018) The Effect of Norms on Fertility and its Implications for the Quantity-Quality Trade-off in Pakistan. LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2018014, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Économiques et Sociales (IRES).Google Scholar
Jones, L. E., Schoonbroodt, A. and Tertilt, M. (2010) Fertility theories: Can they explain the negative fertility-income relationship? In: Shoven, J. (ed.), Demography and the Economy (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report), pp. 43–100. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Joshi, S. and Schultz, T. P. (2013) Family planning and women’s and children’s health: Long-term consequences of an outreach program in Matlab, Bangladesh. Demography 50(1), 149–180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kearney, M. S. and Levine, P. B. (2009) Subsidized contraception, fertility, and sexual behavior. Review of Economics and Statistics 91(1), 137–151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, G. (2010) Contraception as development? New evidence from family planning in Colombia. Economic Journal 120(545), 709–736.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munshi, K. and Myaux, J. (2006) Social norms and the fertility transition. Journal of Development Economics 80(1), 1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myong, S., Park, J. and Yi, J. (2020) Social norms and fertility. Journal of the European Economic Association. https://secure-web.cisco.com/1E8TCCpvY5zUPDS8ogBsGKe5JLjv2OTK-rzRSwFyIk9ZJ7eyRrv39zVOZeU6ct3NJARVe8 501mznv431sSh-O9d4AGVnGv-cluiui4uStgmLg9OasfOIZHhL_7e0TA-bv-sxQ5JJPOQuY7AxQeQe5rNsVw5OLiBsBExih 95-GUsBvRPcwKsBtfns7UK1BaRDEl0MF2E1iBd2UG_ZWgE4FkTt9B4B4fq_dZRgxdIgUB1sxIPlrGKUtmASZJ5l1tcvWI XCHM0MvhlpYGGsnL6ZpbwEeba2bszi-PtGYWs9sShyoIdy8BMr9DcVnpsWtMp18rgiuqb9KBtejQZb8YiB_vKYsyk2bV BgOJRGqt0bK-QZOzwTAsMaLHrUo2D0eF85j_0TTI_L8G2T6KvET2oE-SA/https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1093%2Fj eea%2Fjvaa048 Google Scholar
Prettner, K. and Strulik, H. (2017) It’s a sin—contraceptive use, religious beliefs, and long-run economic development. Review of Development Economics 21(3), 543–566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, T. P. (2008) Population policies, fertility, women’s human capital, and child quality. In: Schultz, T. P. and Strauss, J. (eds.), Handbook of Development Economics, vol. 4. Elsevier.Google Scholar
Strulik, H. (2017) Contraception and development: A unified growth theory. International Economic Review 58(2), 561–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tamura, R. and Simon, C. (2017) Secular fertility declines, baby booms, and economic growth: International evidence. Macroeconomic Dynamics 21(7), 1601–1672.CrossRefGoogle Scholar