Population Growth and Economic Development Policy Questions (1986) / Chapter Skim
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9 Can a couple's fertility behavior impose costs on society at large?
9 Can a couple's fertility behavior impose costs on society at large?
Pages 78-84
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From page 78... ...
Of course, He manner in which these gains are distributed depends on the way property rights are defined and allocated, but in principle the gains could be distributed so as to make everyone in society better off. For this reason, welfare economics unambiguously recommends policy intervention to correct market failures resulting from true externalities.
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From page 79... ...
We discuss three situations in which private fertility decisions have social repercussions: in the use of common-property resources, in the labor market, and in the intrafamily allocation of goods. The chapter concludes win a discussion of policy implications and options.
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From page 80... ...
Because these congestion costs must be borne by the society as a whole, not just by the families who bear many children, rapid population growth may have net negative extemal effects on public welfare. The logic supporting publicly subsidized education is usually of a different sort, stressing the social interest in having a well-educated electorate and labor force or the importance of supplying a population's basic needs.
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From page 81... ...
Indeed, one can argue that altruistic family behavioral norms reflect the importance of intergenerational cooperation, representing a nonmarket social institution that serves to internalize potential external effects. And, in a stable culture, it is not unreasonable to expect that family size norms embody reliable information about the economic conditions that will be faced by the next generation.
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From page 82... ...
Policies Cat go beyond family planning may also impose welfare costs and require families to forgo the satisfaction from additional children. Principles of welfare economics suggest that one should distinguish among three kinds of policies: those that alter childbearing incentives via taxes or subsidies, those that change "tastes" for children, and those that impose fused limits on the number of children per family.
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From page 83... ...
Government programs designed to change "tastes" for children are difficult to evaluate from He viewpoint of welfare economics, which takes tastes as a given. But it is clear that a change in preference for children relative to market goods, which leads to altered fertility, might resolve problems of external effects related to population growth.
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From page 84... ...
These effects are likely to result in a negative external effect of childbearing in most developing counties, where there are no social security systems and where economies of scale in infrastructure are more than counterbalanced by congestion costs. When negative externalities exist, a minimum policy prescription would include the subsidized provision of family planning services to allow couples to achieve their desired levels of fertility.
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