October 3, 2018

Children’s Day, held annually in Singapore on the first Friday of October, seems to fly by. Many Singaporeans may not even be concerned about such an occasion. In 2017 the total fertility rate (TFR) of Singapore dropped to 1.16, the second lowest recorded. TFR refers to the average number of live births each woman would have during her child-bearing years (15 to 49 years old). For the population to replace itself, women need to have an average of 2.1 babies. A decline in the TFR has implications on population growth and economic growth, becoming an area of concern for policymakers. Associate Professor Chia Ngee Choon, deputy head of the NUS Department of Economics, and actuarial data analyst Ms Chia Han Mae shared with The Straits Times their study on the Singapore government’s efforts to boost fertility rates.

Regression analyses done reveal that the one-off Baby Bonus had little or no effect on the TFR, whereas policies to lower the long-term costs of raising children might have a more significant positive effect. Unlike one-off cash bonuses for babies, longer-term birth incentives such as the Working Mother’s Child Relief (WMCR) can amount for up to 25% of earned income, offsetting a higher proportion of child-rearing costs. These findings offer a different perspective for policymakers to tackle the issue of a declining TFR in Singapore, where more can be done to defray long-term child rearing costs.

Read more here.