ABSTRACT
Incentives that affect fertility can be divided into two classes. They are those that alter the ordinary conditions of life, especially economic factors such as would change decisions about lots of things besides family size; and those where rewards and penalties for particular reproductive behaviors, or results, are set as a matter of government policy. Internal migration is also limited, so that communities which condone cheating on official family-size targets must live with the longterm results of their excess reproduction. The Iranian government was willing to risk internal dissension and has embarked by decree on a daring program to change family-size targets. Absent gradualism, democratic governments have to create some level of public consensus before withdrawing subsidies that encourage large family size. In effect, the Indian government advocated small family size but in other ways dispelled individual families' belief in real limits.
