Could South Korea’s US$73,500 baby bonus solve its fertility crisis? South Korea, which has the world’s lowest total fertility rate — just above 0.7, far below the replacement level of 2.1 — is pondering a radical solution: baby bonuses of 100 million won (US$73,500) each. For perspective, that is about twice South Korea’s annual per capita income. It should not be a huge surprise that the smaller subsidies do not work. In any case, the South Korean and Hungarian birth subsidy experiments deserve both praise and scrutiny.

Source: Taipei Times May 20, 2024 16:49 UTC