Fertility enhancing policies in Latvia

Economics of Childbearing and Pronatalist Policies. A new FROGEE policy brief on the situation in the region, containing an overview of the situation in Latvia written by Nicolas Gavoille (SSE Riga, BICEPS), Anna Pļuta (BICEPS) and Anna Zasova (BICEPS)

Latvia is a country with a relatively low fertility rate. In the a late nineties and the first half of the 2000s, a persistently negative net migration ratio and a declining population made  the fertility rate a particularly sensitive political issue and Latvia introduced a range of fertility enhancing programs, most of which are available to parents with children nowadays. In this brief, we argue that while these programs are likely to have played an important role in encouraging fertility, the exact impact is hard to identify. The reason is that the government spending on  family and children-related measures in recent years had a strong procyclical pattern , which makes it practically impossible to disentangle the effect of the policies from the effect of the economic cycle.

The full Report is available here.

Reports from Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Poland, Ukraine and Russia are available in English and the national languages here.

About FROGEE Policy Briefs

FROGEE Policy Briefs is a special series aimed at providing overviews and the popularization of economic research related to gender equality issues. Debates around policies related to gender equality are often highly politicized. We believe that using arguments derived from the most up to date research-based knowledge would help us build a more fruitful discussion of policy proposals and in the end achieve better outcomes.

The aim of the briefs is to improve the understanding of research-based arguments and their implications, by covering the key theories and the most important findings in areas of special interest to the current debate. The briefs start with short general overviews of a given theme, which are followed by a presentation of country-specific contexts, specific policy challenges, implemented reforms and a discussion of other policy options.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in policy briefs and other publications are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect those of the FREE Network and its research institutes.