Thursday, March 27, 2025

The Baby Bust Debate

South Korea’s Baby Bust
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/south-korea-can-avoid-demographic-collapse-with-bold-structural-reform-by-lee-jong-wha-2025-09
South Korea’s fertility crisis reflects not only economic constraints, but also a widening gap between social norms and women’s needs and aspirations. Only with bold, coordinated reforms that close this gap can the country raise fertility to a level that, though still below replacement, would avert demographic collapse.


Even a $14,000 Government Handout Can’t Get South Korea’s Singles to Marry
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/relationships/singles-dating-marriage-fertility-birthrate-south-korea-bdb40c7b
State-sponsored dating has become a phenomenon in a country with rock-bottom fertility rates; ‘I don’t want my parents to find out’. 

Chile’s plummeting births take fertility rate below Japan’s
https://www.ft.com/content/315f7420-104a-40f5-ad2e-12520cb095ad
Social mobility and high living costs contribute to 42 per cent drop in rate over past decade.


Birth rates are crashing around the world. Should we be worried? 
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/03/the-population-implosion 

Why solving the baby bust is so difficult
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/10/baby-bust-policy-failure-europe/
No motherhood medal or baby bonus will fix what economic modernization (and closed borders) broke.
 
Economic Growth, Cultural Traditions, and Declining Fertility
https://www.nber.org/digest/202504/economic-growth-cultural-traditions-and-declining-fertility