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I would say that's not the key takeaway; it's about the relationship between income and children within a country. From the conclusion: "Past fertility resear

I would say that's not the key takeaway; it's about the relationship between income and children within a country. From the conclusion: "Past fertility research largely focused on understanding fertility decline over time and the negative cross-country relationship between income and fertility. The most important mechanism in explaining these patterns was the quantity-quality tradeoff. However, much has changed over the last few decades. In particular, fertility is no longer negatively related to income across high-income countries. Instead, family policy, cooperative fathers, favorable social norms, and flexible labor markets have become key determinants of fertility choice. Thus, a new era of fertility research has begun."

tuatoru 3y ago
Yes. Off topic, but take a look across countries for example Austria and Switzerland. Similar geography, language, culture, ethnicities and religions, very similar total fertility rates, but in Austria childcare is cheap (~3% of average wage) and in Switzerland, expensive (~60% or more). Conclusion: childcare cost is not causative. 1. Austria and Switzerland both have TFR of 1.5 according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_fertility_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_fer... 2. "Switzerland has one of the most expensive childcare systems in the developed world and also gets bad marks on parental leave, according to a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)." https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/society/switzerland-among-worst-in-the-world-for-childcare-support/46716136 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/society/switzerland-among-worst...