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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: tvdvc2@cam.ac.uk
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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

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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.

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