Capitalism Crowding out Fertility

Abstract

The theoretical part starts with an outline of alternative capitalism theories and view of fertility as cause of overpopulation and under-reproduction. The paper then covers the existing literature on a vast array of crowding out factors influencing fertility around the world, featuring hardly any reference to economic variables. It is then innovatively argued that capitalism and access to markets as well as attention to participate in production and consumption curbs people’s humane-imbued wish for parenthood. A worldwide data sample on capitalism measured by the Index of Economic Freedom is portrayed to be negatively correlated with fertility rates around the world. Tariffs and taxation are associated with higher fertility rates. Based on a 139 country strong worldwide dataset on industrialization as measured by the UNIDO in the Industrialization Intensity Index of 2014 and fertility rates as reported by the CIA World Factbook, a highly significantly negative correlation is found between industrialization and fertility rates around the world. Urban areas have lower fertility rates than metropolitan centers and access to markets as measured by the World Bank Rural Access Index is associated with lower fertility rates. This effect also holds for a 50 U.S. states dataset of the 2017 Economic Freedom Index, which reveals economic freedom to be negatively associated with fertility rates in the United States of America. The historical cases of the transition of communist USSR to the more capitalist contemporary Russia as well as the East and West Germany reunification as introduction of East Germany to capital markets; but also the Czech Republic’s gaining access to economic markets and the Islamic state Westernization of Iran in the 1990ies are meta-analyzed in order to reveal that access to markets crowds out fertility over time in different parts of the world. In the historic cases, education, on the contrary, is not related to fertility in a stringent way and therefore argued to just be a vehicle to engage in the economic game of producing and consuming; but the actual driving effect being access to capitalist markets. Practical recommendations are targeted at limiting the downsides of international aid creating overpopulation by shifting to opening markets for overpopulated areas and enabling fertility alongside strengthening the intergenerational glue in under-reproduced areas of the world. The paper concludes with policy recommendations how to implement capitalism in overpopulated-low capitalistic territories and enhance fertility in under-reproduced-high capitalistic countries by curbing capitalism and funding parenthood, which is prospected to become more precious in the digital age.

Keywords: Business Freedom, Capitalism, Capitalism-Fertility Index, Economic Freedom Index, Falling Rate of Fertility, Fertility, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Index of Economic Freedom, Industrialization Intensity Index, Overpopulation, Rural Access Index, Under-Reproduction, Urbanization