Welfare and macroeconomic effects of family policies

Welfare and macroeconomic effects of family policies

What are the welfare and macroeconomic effects of family policies? How do they depend on policy composition? I answer that questions in overlapping generations model calibrated to the US. I account for the idiosyncratic income risk, redistribution via social security, and tax and benefit system. I explicitly model child-related tax credit, child care subsidies, and child-allowance. I show the expansion of the family policy yields higher welfare. The expenditure on the optimal policy accounts for approximately 3% of GDP. Even though the optimal family policy is three times bigger than the status quo policy, taxes decrease when the optimal policy is implemented. Therefore, reform is self- financing. The structure of family policy is crucial for welfare evaluation. Tax credit and child allowance generate higher welfare gains than child care.

 

 

 

 

 

15/Aug/2021 - 22/Aug/2021
University of Bonn