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To raise low birth rates, we must help mothers
Easing the child penalty in the labour market could also increase fertility.
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Women pay a heavier price for having children, and, as one study found, this child penalty grows as countries become wealthier.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
Martin Wolf
Bringing up children is what Dr Claudia Goldin, the Nobel laureate economist, calls a “greedy” job. A greedy job is one that demands not just long but unpredictable hours.
But being a parent differs from other such jobs – investment banking, for example – in being unpaid. Alas, it is impossible to do two greedy jobs at the same time. This creates a dilemma. The parents could both do greedy jobs and hand over the children to full-time professional carers, which is financially (and emotionally) expensive. Or just one of them could do the highly paid greedy job. Or both could do ungreedy jobs and accept low family incomes. Or they could simply have no children at all.
