Pensions and fertility: in search of a link

In overlapping generations models with endogenous fertility wherein the retired partake of consumption but do not contribute to production (through their labor), fertility has a positive and a negative externality. These can be internalized through a child allowance (or tax) or a linkage between pension benefits and the number of children. The prescription rest crucially on the assumption that no parents are better than others in raising their children and that fertility can be perfectly controlled. When either of these two assumptions are violated, the case for such policy recommendations are greatly weakened.