Why Do Americans Want Children?

Abstract

FOR THE PAST HALF-CENTURY, demographers have been preoccupied with the issue of fertility reduction. In his influential book, Theory of Fertility Decline, Caldwell (1982: 350) asserted that fundamental challenge in the demographic field is explain the onset of fertility decline. The basic premise of Caldwell's wealth flows' theory is that high fertility has been economically advantageous to most families over most of human history,' because children created wealth' (broadly defined include all the money, goods, services and guarantees that one person provides another), and that wealth flows' were directed upward from the younger the older generation (ibid.: 334, 333). He concluded that [t]he onset of