In his paper 'The Baby Deficit' Science 2006, Michael Balter points out why public policies are unlikely to reverse fertility declines. His abstract couldn't be more brief:
"As fertility rates decline across the developed world, governments are offering big incentives for childbearing. Experts don't expect them to have much effect."
And talking about fertility reversion, economic recession will not help much in that. Read this NYT piece Fewer Births in a Bad Economy. How low can fertility get in Europe?
(image credit: NYT)
