Title
Childlessness, childfreeness and compensation
Abstract
We study the design of a fair family policy in an economy where parenthood is regarded either as desirable or as undesirable, and where there is imperfect fertility control, leading to involuntary childlessness/parenthood. Using an equivalent consumption approach in the consumption-fertility space, we show that the identification of the worst-off individuals depends on how the social evaluator fixes the reference fertility level. Adopting the ex post egalitarian criterion (giving priority to the worst off in realized terms), we study the compensation for involuntary childlessness/parenthood. Unlike real-world family policies, the fair family policy does not always involve positive family allowances, and may also include positive childlessness allowances. Our results are robust to assuming asymmetric information and to introducing Assisted Reproductive Technologies.
Year
DOI
Venue
2022
10.1007/s00355-021-01379-y
Social Choice and Welfare
DocType
Volume
Issue
Journal
59
1
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
0176-1714
0
0.34
References 
Authors
0
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Marie-Louise Leroux100.34
Pierre Pestieau293.75
Gregory Ponthiere300.34