Jointly determined saving and fertility behaviour: Theory, and estimates for Germany, Italy, UK and USA

Economic growth and business cycles

“…Cigno and Rosati (1992) study saving and fertility behaviour in Italy and their empirical findings support the hypothesis that individual behaviour is motivated by self-interest rather than intergenerational altruism. Similar iindings are obtained in a more recent study for Germany, Italy, U.K. and U.S. (Cigno and Rosati 1996).…”

Social security, social welfare and the aging population

“…Assuming exogenous fertility and an altruistic bond between parents and their children runs counter to the empirical findings of Cigno and Rosati (1996). They find that parents are self-interested and choose their saving and fertility without regard to their offspring.…”

Children are costly, but raising them may pay

“…Given that, the expansion of capital markets and the advent of public provision for old age may have interfered with parental fertility choices, essentially reducing the number of children and/or expenditure on children (a point further investigated by Werding 1998 and fully explored in Cigno and Werding 2007; related empirical work has been provided, e.g., by Cigno and Rosati 1996;Cigno, Casolaro, and Rosati 2003;or Ehrlich and Kim 2007). These effects could be mitigated or, alternatively, even reinforced through various types of uncertainty which also play a role for the long-term relationship between parents and children (Cigno, Luporini, and Pettini 2004;Cremer, Gahvari, and Pestieau 2006) and are still in the process of being investigated more closely in this strand of research.…”