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Self-Enforcing Family Rules, Marriage and the (Non)Neutrality of Public Intervention

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  • Alessandro Cigno
  • Mizuki Komura
  • Annalisa Luporini

Abstract

We demonstrate that the notion of a “family constitution” (self-enforcing, renegotiation-proof family norm) requiring adults to provide attention for elderly parents carries over from a world where sexually indifferentiated individuals reproduce by cell separation, to one where individuals differentiated by sex marry, have children and bargain over the allocation of domestic resources on condition that individual preferences are transmitted from parents to children, and having the same preferences is a criterion for marrying. We also show that policies are generally nonneutral (even if the individuals concerned are altruistically linked to one another) and affect the share of the adult population that are governed by family constitutions.

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  • Alessandro Cigno & Mizuki Komura & Annalisa Luporini, 2016. "Self-Enforcing Family Rules, Marriage and the (Non)Neutrality of Public Intervention," CESifo Working Paper Series 5948, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5948
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    1. Cigno, A., 2016. "Conflict and Cooperation Within the Family, and Between the State and the Family, in the Provision of Old-Age Security," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 609-660, Elsevier.
    2. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Nicolás Salamanca & Anna Zhu, 2019. "Parenting style as an investment in human development," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 1315-1352, October.
    3. Louise Grogan & Fraser Summerfield, 2019. "Government Transfers, Work, and Wellbeing: Evidence from the Russian Old-Age Pension," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 1247-1292, October.
    4. Kim, Kyeongkuk & Lee, Sang-Hyop & Halliday, Timothy J., 2021. "Intra-familial transfers, son preference, and retirement behavior in South Korea," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    5. Alessandro Cigno, 2022. "A strictly economic explanation of gender roles: the lasting legacy of the plough," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-13, March.
    6. Alessandro Cigno & Alessandro Gioffré & Annalisa Luporini, 2021. "Evolution of individual preferences and persistence of family rules," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 935-958, December.
    7. Richard C. Barnett & Joydeep Bhattacharya & Mikko Puhakka, 2018. "Private versus public old-age security," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(3), pages 703-746, July.
    8. Keisuke Kawata & Mizuki Komura, 2023. "Only-child matching penalty in the marriage market," Discussion Paper Series 254, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University.
    9. Zimmermann, Klaus F. & Chowdhury, Shyamal & Sutter, Matthias, 2020. "Economic preferences across generations and family clusters: A large-scale experiment," CEPR Discussion Papers 14998, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Bishnu, Monisankar & Garg, Shresth & Garg, Tishara & Ray, Tridip, 2023. "Intergenerational transfers: Public education and pensions with endogenous fertility," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    11. Koichi Futagami & Kunihiko Konishi, 2019. "Rising longevity, fertility dynamics, and R&D-based growth," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 591-620, April.
    12. Alger, Ingela & Cox, Donald, 2020. "Evolution of the Family: Theory and Implications for Economics," IAST Working Papers 20-109, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
    13. Oscar Erixson & Henry Ohlsson, 2019. "Estate division: equal sharing, exchange motives, and Cinderella effects," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 1437-1480, October.
    14. Gautam Hazarika & Chandan Kumar Jha & Sudipta Sarangi, 2019. "Ancestral ecological endowments and missing women," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 1101-1123, October.
    15. Cintya Lanchimba & Joselyn Quisnancela & Yasmín Salazar Méndez, 2020. "The choice of elderly labor: Evidence from Ecuador," Revista de Analisis Economico – Economic Analysis Review, Universidad Alberto Hurtado/School of Economics and Business, vol. 35(1), pages 75-97, April.
    16. Yakita, Akira, 2020. "Economic development and long-term care provision by families, markets and the state," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).
    17. Yakita, Akira, 2019. "Optimal long-term care policy in an intergenerational exchange setting," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(4), pages 321-328.
    18. Yakita, Akira, 2018. "Parents’ strategic transfers and sibling competition in the presence of pay-as-you-go pensions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 63-65.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    marriage; family constitution; preference transmission; policy neutrality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General

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