Optimal Lifecycle Fertility in a Barro Becker Economy

Pre-print, Working paper: Parenthood postponement is a key demographic trend of the last three decades. In order to rationalize that stylized fact, we extend the canonical model by Barro and Becker (1989) to include two – instead of one reproduction periods. We examine how the cost structure of early and late children in terms of time and goods a¤ects the optimal fertility timing. Then, focusing a stationary equilibrium with stationary population, we provide two alternative explanations for the observed postponement of births: (1) a fall of the direct cost of late children (thanks to medical advances); (2) a rise in hourly productivity, which increases the (relative) opportunity costs of early children in comparison to late children.

Author(s)

Pierre Pestieau, Grégory Ponthière

Date of publication
  • 2012
Keywords JEL
D10 J13 O40
Keywords
  • Fertility
  • Birth Timing
  • Population
  • Dynastic Altruism
  • OLG Model
Internal reference
  • PSE Working Papers n°2012-11
Version
  • 1