Pronatalism and fertility: The case of the military

Abstract

While there have been several conceptual analyses of pronatalist influences on fertility, a comparatively small amount of empirical work relates these forces to actual differentials in reproductive behavior. The impact of pronatalist incentives on the fertility of military couples in the United States is examined with data from the 1970 Public Use Samples. The findings failed to support the idea that such incentives lead to higher fertility. Implications of the findings for policies designed to lower fertility are discussed.