Like seemingly every country, Russia has a birthrate issue, and it's quite interesting to hear all the ways it plans on fixing it (naturally, stopping the war isn't one of them!)
While most of this will probably end in nothing, here are some of the things currently being floated at various governmental levels.
- Adding birth rate to governors' KPIs - regions with more births get better evaluations.
- Reproductive health passports for all citizens (Soviet Union had something similar)
- Demographic special forces” to prevent abortions.
- Ban abortions altogether (proposal).
- Lower legal marriage age to 16.
- Internet shutdowns at night to encourage "traditional values."
- Bonus points on school exams (EGE) for girls who are pregnant or have children.
Russia does have a one-time payout for people who have kids and a program of payouts for people having kids too, it's called maternal capital, and you get a couple of thousand dollars for the second kid, then more for the third etc.
Usually, you can't get it as cash, though, and it has to be spent on real estate, tuition fees, things like that.
Can you use economics to stop this declining birthrate train?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but has any gov managed to do anything tangible to reverse the trend?
In my simple view, when housing has become unaffordable and job security is a thing of the past for many, it's no wonder people don't want to have kids. Well, responsible ones.
I think maybe fix the money, fix the birthrate is the answer. Or maybe we're all to hedonistic to want kids these days, in which case, no amount of economic coaxing will work.
What do you think?