ABSTRACT
In this paper, we explore three interrelated questions: (1) what resources do children provide for individuals and society; (2) what potential implications do three distinct aspects of current U.S. fertility patterns-small family size, delayed timing, and outof-union births-have for access to resources typically provided by children; and (3) what potential societal responses could emerge as a result of these implications? We attempt to pull together and develop reasons why fertility is a “good” at both the individual and societal levels and, having reviewed explanations for the weakness of private incentives to invest in children, consider how social mechanisms might respond to address the problem of under-investment through either public or private means. The chapter is speculative, as any discussion of “implications” must be. It also borrows heavily from ideas in the past, but is undoubtedly incomplete in recognizing its debt to the many scholars who have addressed this issue.1
