Fertility and Financial Incentives in France

Laroque, Guy; Salanie, Bernard

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Fertility and Financial Incentives in France

34 Pages Posted: 14 Nov 2003

See all articles by Guy Laroque

Guy Laroque

National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) - Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST)

Bernard Salanie

Columbia University - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - Department of Economics; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Date Written: September 2003

Abstract

Commentators have often linked the increase in births in France since 1995 to more generous family benefits. We study here empirically the link between fertility and financial incentives by estimating and simulating a joint structural model of participation and fertility on a sample of French women. Our results suggest that fertility responds to incentives in a non-negligible way. The results, however, also have some puzzling features: financial incentives appear to have much stronger effects on low-parity births.

Keywords: Incentives, fertility

JEL Classification: H30, J10

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Laroque, Guy and Salanie, Bernard, Fertility and Financial Incentives in France (September 2003). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=469082