Book review: Reproductive states: global perspectives on the invention and implementation of population policy edited by Rickie Solinger and Mie Nakachi

Throughout the twentieth century, there are many examples of nations and their governments imposing restrictive population policies on their citizens in response to perceived political crises and international pressure. From China’s ‘one-child’ policy, the pro-natalist rhetoric of the former USSR to the post-WWII containment measures of the USA, such legislation has had one major thing in common: the perception of women’s bodies as political resources. Katherine Williams recommends Reproductive States: Global Perspectives on the Invention and Implementation of Population Policy to readers interested in biopolitics, gender, statecraft and world systems

Subsidizing the Stork: New Evidence on Tax Incentives and Fertility

Variation in tax policy presents an opportunity to estimate the responsiveness of fertility to prices. This paper exploits the introduction of a pro-natalist transfer policy in the Canadian province of Quebec that paid up to C$8,000 to families having a child. I implement a quasi-experimental strategy by forming treatment and control groups defined by time, jurisdiction, and family type. This permits a triple-difference estimator to be implemented -- both on the program's introduction and cancellation. Furthermore, the incentive was available broadly, rather than to a narrow subset of the population as studied in the literature on AFDC and fertility. This provides a unique opportunity to investigate heterogeneous responses. I find a strong effect of the policy on fertility, and some evidence of a heterogeneous response that may help reconcile these results with the AFDC literature.

A Pooled Time-Series Analysis on the Relation Between Fertility and Female Employment.

Various authors find that in OECD countries the cross-country correlation between the total fertility rate and the female labour force participation rate turned from a negative value before the 1980s to a positive value thereafter. Based on pooled time series analysis the literature seems to agree that this change is due to unmeasured country and time heterogeneity with respect to female employment. However, the role of female employment for time and country heterogeneity remains unclear. Using data of 22 OECD countries from 1960-2000 we estimate pooled time series models of fertility and female labour force participation by applying random effects and fixed effects panel models as well as Prais-Winsten regressions with panel-corrected standard errors and autoregressive errors. Proceeding with Prais-Winsten regressions our empirical findings reveal substantial differences across countries and time periods in the effects of female employment on fertility. Initial increases in female employment strongly lowers fertility, but continued increases have a progressively less negative effect. The country heterogeneity in the effect of female employment can also be confirmed for different regions as well as for varying welfare and gender regimes.

Population Policy through Tradable Procreation Entitlements

Tradable permits are now widely used to control pollution. We investigate the implications of setting up such a system in another area – population control –, either domestically or at the global level. We first generalize the framework with both tradable procreation allowances and tradable procreation exemptions, in order to tackle both over- and under-population problems. The implications of procreation rights for income inequality and education are contrasted. We decompose the scheme’s impact on redistribution into three effects, one of them, the tradability effect, entails the following: with procreation exemptions or expensive enough procreation allowances, redistribution benefits the poor. In contrast, cheap procreation allowances redistribute resources to the rich. As far as human capital is concerned, natalist policy worsens the average education level of the next generation, while population control enhances it. If procreation rights are granted to countries in proportion to existing fertility levels (grandfathering) instead of being allocated equally, population control can be made even more redistributive. Our exploratory analysis suggests that procreation entitlements offer a promising tool to control population without necessarily leading to problematic distributive impact, especially at the global level.Tradable permits, Population control, Pronatalist policy, Income inequality, Differential fertility, Grandfathering.

Population Policy through Tradable Procreation Entitlements

Tradable permits are now widely used to control pollution. We investigate the implications of setting up such a system in another area - population control -, either domestically or at the global level. We first generalize the framework with both tradable procreation allowances and tradable procreation exemptions, in order to tackle both over- and under-population problems. The implications of procreation rights for income inequality and education are contrasted. We decompose the scheme’s impact on redistribution into three effects, one of them, the tradability effect, entails the following : with procreation exemptions or expensive enough procreation allowances redistribute resources to the rich. As far as human capital is concerned, natalist policy worsens the average education level of the next generation, while population control enhances it. If procreation rights are granted to countries in proportion to exissting fertility levels (grandfathering) instead of being allocated equally, population control can be made even more redistributive. Our exploratory analysis suggests that procreation entitlements offer a promising tool to control population without necessarily leading to problematic distributive impact, especially at the global level.Tradable permits, Population control, Pronatalist policy, Income inequality, Differential fertility, Grandfathering

Changing pattern of fertility behaviour in a time of social and economic change: evidence from Mongolia

In 1989, after a long period of socialist rule, Mongolia initiated a democratisation process of its political system together with a transition towards a market economy. This paper examines how changes in socio-economic conditions in Mongolia have affected fertility patterns in recent times. It also provides an outline of changes that have taken place in terms of pro-natalist policies. The study is based on data from the Reproductive Health Survey of Mongolia (RHSM) conducted in 1998. In terms of economic activity we find an inverse, although weak, relationship for older cohorts. This is in strong contrast to the young cohort, for which the economic downturn has had a strongly depressing effect on fertility. We also find important effects of micro level variables, including education and housing. Our findings suggest that the fertility decline observed for the older cohorts are very much part of the first demographic transition, in which the collapse of pro-natalist policies has been influential. (AUTHOR)

Portuguese Report The Economic Crisis and Policy Developments in Portugal

The economic crisis has introduced major changes in family policies in Portugal, in particular since 2010. There has been a move away from an explicit pro-family, pro-egalitarian and pro-natalist perspective focusing on the strengthening of support for families at the level of services, cash benefits and leave schemes, towards a more implicit and residual policy perspective underlining support for very poor families and a move away from state responsibility for families in general, also encouraging the non-governmental sector and families themselves to act as the “front-line” of support. Families have been more affected by increased selectivity and reductions in cash benefits, whereas policies concerning leave entitlements and services have suffered less change

Albania: Trends and patterns, proximate determinants and policies of fertility change

For a very long time, Albania has had one of the highest levels of fertility in Europe: in 2002 the total fertility rate of 2.2 children per woman was the highest in Europe. Although this current level is high, the country has experienced a rapid fertility reduction during the last 50 years: a TFR decline from 7 to 2.2. This reduction has occurred in the absence of modern contraception and abortion, which indicates the significance of investments in the social agenda during the communist regime that produced policies with indirect effects on fertility. Most significant of these were policies focused on education, in particular on female education. Social and demographic settings for a further fertility reduction in Albania have been present since 1990. Contraception and abortion have been legalized and available since the early 1990s, but knowledge of their use is still not widespread in the country, largely due to the interplay between traditional and modern norms of Albanian society. This chapter points out that future fertility levels will be determined not only by new policies that might be introduced, but predominantly by the balance of this interplay.Albania, childbearing, Europe, fertility, fertility change