Fertility Regrets in Parents

Fertility Regrets in Parents

Ulf Zölitz (University of Zurich)

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ABSTRACT:

We provide the first global evidence on parents fertility regrets - the wish to have had fewer children than one currently has. Surveying 47,000 parents across 42 countries, we document that 13.8% express regret, with rates ranging from 7% to 22% across countries. Four facts stand out. First, regret is most prevalent in wealthy, gender-equal societies - the same countries where fertility is lowest. Second, the child penalty in employment is the single strongest country-level predictor of regret, and mothers regret more than fathers in virtually every setting. Third, mothers with MBA or PhD degrees exhibit the highest regret of any demographic subgroup, consistent with the largest career opportunity costs of parenthood. Fourth, regret does not fade; it increases with child age and reaches its highest levels during puberty. Stress, perceiving children as a financial or time burden and dissatisfaction with the division of childcare tasks are among the strongest individual-level predictors. Our findings highlight fertility regret as an underappreciated dimension of parental well-being.

BIO:

Ulf Zölitz is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics of the University of Zurich and the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development. His primary research interests are in the field of applied microeconomics. His research focuses on the economics of education and child and youth development. He has studied Economics at the University of Bonn and received his PhD in Economics from Maastricht University in 2014. Ulf Zölitz also is IZA and ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin research fellow and CESifo and CEPR Research Affiliate.