Citation
Chirkova, Serafima (2013). Do pro-natalist policies reverse depopulation in Russia?. University of Santiago Working Paper.Abstract
In this paper, I focus on fertility decisions of Russian women to analyse the reasonsunderlying the low birth rates. In particular, I study the 2007 Russian family policy reform, designed at supporting a woman's decision to have her second and subsequent children. The main changes in family support system included introduction of the concept of maternity capital and signicant increase of parental-leave benets for mothers with higher birth
orders. Using the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for the period 2001-2011, I analyse the impact of the reform on the decision to have a second child. I estimate a binary choice model of fertility exploiting the variation in the financial incentives. The findings show that the introduced incentives increased the probability to have a second child. Moreover, the impact of the effect depends on gender of the first-born.