Volume 42 - Article 18 | Pages 513–548
Who responds to fertility-boosting incentives? Evidence from pro-natal policies in Australia
By Suzanne Bonner, Dipanwita Sarkar
Abstract
Background: In the wake of aging societies, pro-natalist policies have been used around the world to promote childbearing in developed countries. Very little research investigates the causal effect of the Australian government’s baby bonus policy as a once-off, non-means tested incentive scheme on the observed individual fertility.
Objective: We investigate the role of immigration in raising fertility beyond what could be achieved by the Australian-born population. The impact of this policy is heavily reliant on the effectiveness of monetary incentives in boosting fertility, yet it is not clear who drives this effect.
Methods: We utilize triple difference-in-difference (DDD) strategy to evaluate the relationship between childbearing and introduction of the baby bonus in a quasi-experimental setting. We evaluate the quasi-experimental setting by using propensity score matching.
Results: Our findings highlight the role of immigrant women in driving the success of the policy. Moreover, the impact is found to be highest among immigrant women with low levels of human capital, which diminishes with age.
Conclusions: The results imply that the role of immigrants, especially that of a young workforce, in aging societies may be greater than has been previously attributed.
Contribution: This paper not only provides scope for the analysis of pro-natal policies within the context of Australia but investigates its impact on immigrant women vis-à-vis native-born women. We find the immigrant contribution to be significant in driving the success of pro-natal monetary incentives. Australia is an exemplar for this analysis due to early adoption of pro-natalist incentives for childbearing amidst a population with high immigrant concentration.
Author's Affiliation
- Suzanne Bonner - Macquarie University, Australia EMAIL
- Dipanwita Sarkar - Queensland University of Technology, Australia EMAIL
Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research
Educational trends in cohort fertility by birth order: A comparison of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland
Volume 51 - Article 36
| Keywords:
birth order,
cohort analysis,
cross-national study,
England,
family size,
fertility,
Northern Ireland,
parity,
Scotland,
Wales
Higher incomes are increasingly associated with higher fertility: Evidence from the Netherlands, 2008–2022
Volume 51 - Article 26
| Keywords:
fertility,
income,
inequalities,
Netherlands,
parenthood
The short- and long-term determinants of fertility in Uruguay
Volume 51 - Article 10
| Keywords:
fertility,
panel data,
stages of female reproductive life,
time series,
Uruguay
The big decline: Lowest-low fertility in Uruguay (2016–2021)
Volume 50 - Article 16
| Keywords:
adolescent fertility,
birth order,
fertility,
Latin America,
ultra-low fertility,
Uruguay
Cohort fertility of immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union
Volume 50 - Article 13
| Keywords:
age at first birth,
assimilation,
cohort analysis,
fertility,
immigration,
parity,
religiosity
Cited References: 36
Download to Citation Manager
PubMed
Google Scholar