Endogenous Fertility Waves and the Dynamics of Utility in an Overlapping Generations Model

Economics > General Economics [Submitted on 1 Jun 2026] Title:Endogenous Fertility Waves and the Dynamics of Utility in an Overlapping Generations Model View PDF HTML (experimental)Abstract:This paper investigates the conditions under which the Easterlin hypothesis holds within a neoclassical overlapping generations model with endogenous capital accumulation, wages, interest rates, and fertility. We develop a tractable analytical framework that maps economic transitions into utility space via a continuously differentiable first-order difference equation for cohort lifetime utilities. This reformulation allows for a transparent normative evaluation of non-steady-state paths without requiring explicit solutions to the underlying nonlinear system. Within this framework, we show that when fertility cycles emerge and children are normal goods, the utility of small cohorts strictly exceeds that of large cohorts. Crucially, this cohort-welfare asymmetry is driven by fertility preferences and is independent of the economy's position relative to the golden rule. Current browse context: econ.GN References & Citations Loading... Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Recommenders and Search Tools Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.