Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/258766 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Citation: 
[Journal:] Journal of Risk and Financial Management [ISSN:] 1911-8074 [Volume:] 15 [Issue:] 2 [Article No.:] 42 [Publisher:] MDPI [Place:] Basel [Year:] 2022 [Pages:] 1-28
Publisher: 
MDPI, Basel
Abstract: 
This paper investigates the role of children in explaining the life-cycle pattern of consumption (which is hump-shaped since it is higher in the middle of life and lower at the beginning and end of life). Unlike previous studies, a true panel of U.K. households was exploited to investigate whether currently childless households that anticipate having children behave differently from similar households that do not anticipate children. Spending for each group at different ages was estimated using a simple kernel regression. The paper finds that those households that anticipate children, when compared to households that do not anticipate children, do not seem to significantly reduce total spending before having children, nor do they significantly increase total spending after children arrive. Hence, children do not seem to fully explain the hump shape of consumption over the life-cycle.
Subjects: 
life-cycle consumption
children
JEL: 
D12
D91
J10
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

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