Pensions and fertility: Micro-economic evidence

Arbeitspapier

This study identifies the causal effect of pension generosity on women's fertility behavior. It capitalizes on Brazil's expansion of the pension system to rural workers, whose pension wealth subsequently more than tripled. Event study, difference-in-differences and instrumental variable methods show that the pension reform reduces the propensity of childbearing of women in fertile age by 10% in the short-run. Completed fertility declines by 1.3 children within 20 years after the reform, reducing the contribution base of the Pay-As-You-Go pension system in the long-run. The fertility response is strongest at higher birth parities, among older women and among mothers with sons.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: BGPE Discussion Paper ; No. 192

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs ; Social Security and Public Pensions ; Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
• Subject: Pension wealth ; Fertility ; Old-age security hypothesis ; Quasi-experiment ; PAYG ; Brazil

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Danzer, Alexander M. ; Zyska, Lennard
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
• (where): Erlangen und Nürnberg
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/237983
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET