This paper investigates the role of children in explaining the life-cycle pattern of consumption (which is hump … of U.K. households was exploited to investigate whether currently childless households that anticipate having children … behave differently from similar households that do not anticipate children. Spending for each group at different ages was …

intertemporal consumption behavior, produce inconsistent estimates of the effect of children on consumption if potentially binding … effect of children and a structural estimation strategy when households face constraints. Finally, I estimate the effect of … children on consumption using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) for the US and high quality Danish administrative …