Fertility choice, social spending, and economic growth: Theory and evidence.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Leung, Edward.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economics.

0501.

Penn dissertations--Economics.

Economics--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Economics.

Economics--Penn dissertations.

0501.

Physical Description:

94 pages

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 58-07A.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

This research project contributes to the endogenous growth literature with endogenous fertility choice in the following respects. First, in existing growth literature, an increase in tax rate has negative effects on the growth rate of per capita output. One simple explanation is an increase in tax rate decreases the rate of return to the investment activities of the goods sector. But what if the tax revenue is being spent on growth enhancing activities such as health and education? This paper uses an endogenous growth model with a goods sector and a human capital sector to examine the case where the government taxes the households' income so as to provide service to consumers by enhancing the productivity of the human capital sector. This paper examines the net growth effect of a tax rate change.

The empirical part of this project investigates the dynamic properties of fertility, social spending per capita, and output per capita using a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). Annual data of the US from 1952 to 1992 is employed. The effect of output shocks on the impulse response of fertility growth is still unclear in similar work. The empirical part shows that the impulse response of fertility growth due to a output shock depends on whether social spending is included as a variable. The inclusion of social spending enables policy implication to be discussed, which is lacking in previous work. In addition, an implication of endogenous growth models where temporary change in government policy has no permanent effect on growth rate of output per capita is also tested. A VECM is chosen because there exists a tight connection between balanced growth and cointegration.

Notes:

Thesis (Ph.D. in Economics) -- University of Pennsylvania, 1997.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 58-07, Section: A, page: 2756.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

ISBN:

9780591502138

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.