Did Australia’s Baby Bonus Increase Fertility Intentions and Births?

Drago, Robert; Sawyer, Katina; Shreffler, Karina M.; Warren, Diana; Wooden, Mark

doi:10.1007/s11113-010-9193-y

Cited by 69 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Our findings differ from Drago et al (2010), who found that the introduction of the Baby Bonus produced a small but significant increase in fertility intentions and inferred that a similar increase in fertility would result. The wider range of control variables used in our study, particularly the interactions between age and parity, may explain the differing assessments of the effects of the Baby Bonus.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…After controlling for the effects of age and parity and the other variables in the model, fertility increases significantly as the woman's highest level of education increases. 27 Other analyses of the HILDA data have produced a similar result (Drago et al 2010;Parr 2010). The education effects partly reflect the fact that the "catch-up effect" among women in the later reproductive ages is stronger among the more highly educated.…”

Section: Factors Affecting Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 86%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The contribution of increases in family benefits to Australia’s early 21st-century fertility increase: An empirical analysis

Parr¹,

Guest²

2011

DemRes

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Factors Affecting Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 86%

The contribution of increases in family benefits to Australia’s early 21st-century fertility increase: An empirical analysis

Parr¹,

Guest²

2011

DemRes

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“…A study of Australia's baby bonus policy by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research found that the new incentive did elevate birth rates through its positive effect on fertility intentions, with the effect stronger among women who had children already (Drago et al 2009). Fertility intentions, in general, were found to be higher among women who were younger or partnered, or had higher levels of income or education.…”

Section: Previous Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘…And one for the country’ The effect of the baby bonus on Australian women’s childbearing intentions

Risse

2010

J Pop Research

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In 2004, at a time when the nation was experiencing the lowest fertility trends in its history, the Australian Federal Government introduced the offer of a cash payment of $3,000 to all women on the birth of a new baby. The maternity payment, commonly known as the baby bonus, was increased to $4,000 in 2006 and to $5,000 in 2008. While not explicitly declared a pronatalist policy at the time of its introduction, the baby bonus was later credited with helping to halt the decline of the nation's aggregate birth rates. This paper examines the effect of this policy on Australian women's childbearing intentions from 2001 to 2008, using panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics (HILDA) Survey. The results indicate that the introduction of the baby bonus coincided with a statistically significant increase in women's childbearing intentions. More specifically, the strongest increase occurred among women from lower-income households, potentially implying that the policy had the strongest effect on women who, given their current characteristics, are relatively likely to be reliant on welfare assistance to raise their children over the long term. The inferences drawn from the paper's findings raise concern over the capacity of the baby bonus policy to reduce aggregate dependency rates.

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“…The 2004 scheme replaced a less lucrative tax offset scheme focused solely on first births (also, to the media, the Baby Bonus) introduced three years earlier, and was accompanied by several other family-friendly welfare initiatives. Assessments of the impact of these measures on Australian fertility have generally used words like -modest‖ and -slight‖ (Lattimore and Pobke 2008;Drago et al 2011;Parr and Guest 2011), but Risse (2010, p. 231) did report an associated -highly significant increase in the childbearing intentions of women from lower-income households‖. This may have manifested itself in increased rates of non-marital conception leading to non-marital confinement at ages 15-24.…”

Section: Conceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-marital pregnancy and the second demographic transition in Australia in historical perspective

Carmichael¹

2014

DemRes

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BACKGROUNDAustralia has remarkably detailed data on non-marital pregnancy dating from 1908. They both offer insight into long-term trends in childbearing resulting from non-marital sexual activity and reveal in historical context key features of the second demographic transition and its genesis. OBJECTIVETrends are traced in rates of non-marital conception of children ultimately born both outside and within marriage. A range of related indices is also presented in examining how demographic behaviour surrounding non-marital pregnancy (i) helped generate the second demographic transition and (ii) unfolded as a component of it. METHODSCore indices are rates of non-marital conception partitioned into additive components associated with marital and non-marital confinement. Data on non-marital and early marital births (at marriage durations 07 months) are lagged back 38 weeks to a date of and age at conception basis to facilitate a common, unmarried, population at risk. RESULTSPost-war weakening of parental oversight of courtship was a fundamental trigger to the broader rejection of normative and institutional values that underpinned the second demographic transition. In tandem with denying the unmarried access to oral contraception it generated rampant youthful non-marital pregnancy, which undermined Judeo-Christian values, especially once abortion law reform occurred. CONCLUSIONSChildbearing following non-marital conception transitioned rapidly after the 1960s from primarily the unintended product of youthful intercourse in non-coresidential relationships to mainly intended behaviour at normative reproductive ages in consensual unions. Family formation increasingly mixed non-marital births and premaritally and/or maritally conceived marital births.1 Australian National University, Australia. E-Mail: Gordon.Carmichael@anu.edu.au.Carmichael: Non-marital pregnancy and the second demographic transition in Australia 610http://www.demographic-research.org COMMENTSAn earlier analysis of non-marital pregnancy in Australia (Carmichael 1996) traversed the entire period of European settlement, commencing with the convict era (17881840). It did not focus on the second demographic transition, as this updated analysis does.

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Did Australia’s Baby Bonus Increase Fertility Intentions and Births?

Cited by 69 publications

References 16 publications

The contribution of increases in family benefits to Australia’s early 21st-century fertility increase: An empirical analysis

The contribution of increases in family benefits to Australia’s early 21st-century fertility increase: An empirical analysis

‘…And one for the country’ The effect of the baby bonus on Australian women’s childbearing intentions

Non-marital pregnancy and the second demographic transition in Australia in historical perspective

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