The optimal design of assisted reproductive technologies policies.

assisted reproductive technologies; ex‐post egalitarianism; fertility; non‐linear taxation; utilitarianism; Humans; Taxes; Health Policy; Fertility; Female; Reproductive Techniques, Assisted/economics; Reproductive Techniques, Assisted

Abstract :

[en] This paper studies the optimal fiscal treatment of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in an economy where individuals differ in their reproductive capacity (or fecundity) and in their wage. We find that the optimal ART tax policy varies with the postulated social welfare criterion. Utilitarianism redistributes only between individuals with unequal fecundity and wages but not between parents and childless individuals. To the opposite, ex post egalitarianism (which gives absolute priority to the worst-off in realized terms) redistributes from individuals with children toward those without children, and from individuals with high fecundity toward those with low fecundity, so as to compensate for both the monetary cost of ART and the disutility from involuntary childlessness resulting from unsuccessful ART investments. Under asymmetric information and in order to solve for the incentive problem, utilitarianism recommends to either tax or subsidize ART investments of low-fecundity-low-productivity individuals at the margin, depending on the degree of complementarity between fecundity and ART in the fertility technology. On the opposite, ex post egalitarianism always recommends marginal taxation of ART.

Disciplines :

Social economics

Author, co-author :

Leroux, Marie-Louise ; Departement des Sciences Economiques, ESG-UQAM, Montréal, Quebec, Canada ; CIRANO, Montréal, Quebec, Canada ; CORE, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium ; CESifo, Munich, Germany

Pestieau, Pierre ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Ecole de Gestion de l'Université de Liège ; CORE, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium ; Toulouse School of Economics, Toulouse, France

Ponthiere, Gregory; Hoover Chair in Economic and Social Ethics, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Language :

English

Title :

The optimal design of assisted reproductive technologies policies.

Publication date :

July 2024

Journal title :

Health Economics

ISSN :

1057-9230

eISSN :

1099-1050

Publisher :

John Wiley and Sons Ltd, England

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

1454 - 1479

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/hec.4822

Funders :

SSHRC - Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Available on ORBi :

since 14 July 2025

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