Male Reproductive Health, Fairness and Optimal Policies

Johanna Etner (1) , Natacha Raffin (2, 1) , Thomas Seegmuller (3)

1 EconomiX - EconomiX
2 CREAM - Centre de Recherche en Economie Appliquée à la Mondialisation
3 AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques

Based on epidemiological evidence, we consider an economy where agents differ through their ability to procreate. Households with impaired fertility may incur health expenditures to increase their chances of parenthood. This health heterogeneity generates welfare inequalities that deserve to be ruled out. We explore three different criteria of social evaluation in the long-run: the utilitarian approach, which considers the well- being of all households, the ex-ante egalitarian criterion, which considers the expected well-being of the worst-off social group, and the ex-post egalitarian one, which only considers the realized well-being of the worst- off. In an overlapping generations model, we propose a set of economic instruments to decentralize each solution. To correct for the externality and inequalities, both a preventive (a taxation of capital) and a redistributive policy are required.

Mots clés: egalitarianism; fairness; reproductive health; OLG model; optimal policy

Domaines: Economies et finances

Johanna Etner, Natacha Raffin, Thomas Seegmuller. Male Reproductive Health, Fairness and Optimal Policies. 2018. ⟨halshs-01798983⟩