Events

Abstract:  Fertility decline matters not just because populations may get smaller, but because it changes the age structure of a population. As societies grow older, they lean more and more on a smaller generation of children, even as the costs of pensions, healthcare, and long-term care keep rising. This book talk asks a simple question: why do societies that so badly need children still find it hard to lower the cost of having and raising them? The book argues that aging itself gets in the way. It creates fiscal, political, and organizational limits on how much a society can keep investing in families. And when governments do act, they usually help with money and time but overlook the insecurity, exhaustion, and coordination burdens that parents face. Drawing mainly on China, with comparisons across East Asia and Europe, the book shifts the question. Instead of asking whether governments can restore high fertility, it asks whether the decline can stabilize before the imbalance between generations starts to feed on itself.

The Sociology Seminar Series for Hilary Term is convened by Zachary Parolin and Carlo Perrotta. For more information about this or any of the seminars in the series, please contact sociology.secretary@nuffield.ox.ac.uk.