This paper applies the theory of relational contracts to a model in which a couple decides whether to marry or cohabit … among the decisions on marriage, fertility and divorce. …

agree on wanting a child. Using newly available data on fertility preferences and outcomes, we show that indeed, babies are … bargaining model of fertility choice and match the model to data from a set of European countries with very low fertility rates …. The distribution of the burden of child care between mothers and fathers turns out to be a key determinant of fertility. A …

fertility setting. In the model of a small open economy, higher fertility is associated with a reduction of lifetime labor … supply. The optimum share of fertility-related pensions is always below unity, but generally positive. The former is true … demonstrated that child allowances are equivalent to fertility-related pensions as instruments to achieve an efficient allocation. …

The economic theory of fertility choice builds predominantly on the unitary model of the household, in which there is a … bear on fertility choice, and we point out promising future directions for this line of research. …