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How many children? – Fixing total annual births as a population control policy

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Abstract

Traditional family planning's emphasis on manipulating the total fertility rate often results in erratic number of births which disrupts school enrollment and labor supply. Fixing total annual births to a permanently lower level will avoid such repeated disruptions and can eventually lead to a lower stationary population with annual deaths equal to the fixed annual births. If allocation of the fixed birth quotas is conditional upon deaths, each death can be converted to a variable number of inheritable and tradable birth quotas. Tradable birth coupons allow families to have the number of children they want and can afford within the overall fixed birth quotas. Inheritable birth quotas provide incentive for higher old-age mortality and consequently less aging in a declining population.

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Fung, K. How many children? – Fixing total annual births as a population control policy. Population Research and Policy Review 17, 403–420 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006050225951

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006050225951

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