The Old-Age Security Motive for Fertility: Evidence from the Extension of Social Pensions in Namibia

The old-age security motive for fertility postulates that people’s needs support raise the demand children. We exploit extension of social pensions in Namibia during 1990s to provide a quasi-experimental quantification this widespread idea. reform eliminated inequalities pension coverage and benefits across regions ethnic groups. Combining differences pre-reform exposure cohorts, we show substantially reduce fertility, especially late reproductive life. results suggest improving protection elderly could go long way fostering decline sub-Saharan Africa. (JEL H55, I38, J13, J14, O15)