Parenting as a public good - Works in Progress

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Society has free-ridden on women for millennia, benefiting from the children they’ve had while bearing few of the costs. But as women have gained other options, birth rates have fallen. How many children should we be having? It’s a question that’s had slightly more airtime in recent months than usual. The UK charity Population Matters demonstrated outside COP26 in November with a giant inflatable “big baby” to draw attention to the environmental impact of children as a reason to have fewer of them. At the same time, the latest data say that 2020 has seen birth rates in Britain fall to unprecedented lows, which has prompted concerns that low fertility “will damage our society” and “spell economic stagnation”. These numbers suggest that the pandemic has accelerated one of the most remarkable yet under-reported trends of the last fifty years: the great baby bust. In almost all the world’s developed nations, fertility dropped below replacement rate1 in the latter half of the twentieth cent

How many children should we be having? It’s a question that’s had slightly more airtime in recent months than usual. The UK charity Population Matters demonstrated outside COP26 in November with a giant inflatable “big baby” to draw attention to the environmental impact of children as a reason to have fewer of them. At the same time, the latest data say that 2020 has seen birth rates in Britain fall to unprecedented lows, which has prompted concerns that low fertility “ will damage our society ” and “ spell economic stagnation ”. These numbers suggest that the pandemic has accelerated one of t

Parenting as a public good - Works in Progress

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