Niveau de vie et nombre d'enfants. Un bilan de la législation familiale et fiscale française de 1978

Calot Gérard. ? Standard of Living and Number of Children : An appraisal of French family and fiscal legislation in 1978. The number of children affects both the costs and the resources of a family. On one hand, family allowances increase the income earned by the parents; on the other, the maintenance of the children directly affects expenditure; finally, income tax rates take account of the number of dependent children. In this paper an attempt has been made to a balance-sheet of the resources available to a couple over a life span of 40 years, depending on the number of children. The allowances are those laid down by the legislation in force in France in 1978. The unit cost of each child is assumed to decrease with birth-order, because of economics of scale and to grow less quickly than the couple's basic income (constant elasticity of cost of a child relative to the parent's basic income) but nevertheless to increase with basic income. On these assumptions it is possible to calculate the resources available according to the size of the family and its basic income and to compare them with those which would result in their enjoying the same level of living as a childless couple with the same basic income. The results show a clear relative deterioration of the standard of living in the middle of the salary scale; in particular, a couple who decide to have three or more children, very quickly make considerable sacrifices when the wife gives up employment : current French legislation is still based on the implicit assumption that a married woman does not engage in gainful activity.