Data and Code for: 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 for old-age supportraise the demand for children. We exploit the extension of social pensions in Namibiaduring the nineties to provide a quasi-experimental quantification of this widespread idea.The reform eliminated inequalities in pension coverage and benefits across regions andethnic groups. Combining differences in pre-reform pensions and differences in exposureacross cohorts, we show that pensions substantially reduce fertility, especially in latereproductive life. The results suggest that improving social protection for the elderlycould go a long way in fostering fertility decline in Sub-Saharan Africa.