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We examine the growth and welfare effects of parental leave subsidization in a life‐cycle dynastic model with human capital externality. Such externality causes higher fertility, less parental time and expenditure on child human capital, and lower growth and welfare than the efficient levels. Efficient policies require subsidizing work leave, which includes parental leave, and labor income financed by a lump‐sum tax. Calibration based on the U.S. data implies that a fully‐covered leave duration of 7.8 weeks per parent financed by an increase in labor income tax would increase the annual growth rate by 0.06 percentage points and welfare by 0.027%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the impact of unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) on fertility. We develop a theoretical model that demonstrates how UCTs affect fertility decisions, time allocations for leisure, labor and childrearing, and child health through health spending. We then empirically examine the impact of UCTs on fertility in Pakistan. Our theoretical model suggests that under certain conditions, UCTs are likely to increase fertility if UCTs increase child health regardless of how they affect parental leisure, labor and childrearing time. The empirical results suggest that UCTs have a positive effect on fertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically examines the effects of health status on housing tenure decisions of older Australians. Using longitudinal data drawn from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey covering 2001–2017, we measure health status using self‐reported health scores and capture aspects of housing tenure decisions including homeownership, housing transition between owning and renting, and ownership downsizing or upsizing. Our results suggest that better health is associated with a higher probability of owning a home; a lower probability of transitioning from homeownership to renting; and a higher probability of transitioning from renting to homeownership. We also find a positive association between health and decisions to downsize and upsize although the probability is slightly higher for downsizing compared to upsizing. These findings are robust to a suite of sensitivity checks including alternative estimation methods, alternative measures of health and housing transitions, and to different population subgroups. We find that the preference to continue living in an area is an important channel through which health influences homeownership and housing transition between owning and renting. Our findings point to the need for policies that promote healthy aging and improve home and community healthcare services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 1970s, the received wisdom has been that government size (measured as the ratio of total government expenditure to gross domestic product ( GDP) or government consumption to GDP) is detrimental to economic growth. We conduct a hierarchical meta-regression analysis of 799 effect-size estimates reported in 87 primary studies to verify if this assertion is supported by existing evidence. Our findings indicate that the conventional prior belief is supported by evidence mainly from developed countries but not from less developed countries. We argue that the negative relationship between government size and economic growth in developed countries may reflect endogeneity bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]