Are Family Allowances and Fertility-Related Pensions Siamese Twins?

This paper discusses alternative ways to deal with the positive externalities of having children in a pay-as-you-go pension system. Family allowances are compared to introducing a fertility-related component into the pension formula. In an endogenous labor supply setting, both instruments are shown to be equivalent if general pensions are of the Bismarckian contribution-related type. In contrast, if general pensions are of the Beveridgean flat-rate type, making pensions contingent on the number of children is generally preferable to family allowances because the latter creates a larger tax load on labor supply