International Evidence on Fertility Policies and Policy Measures for Uruguay

The article presents a systematization of the international evidence on the effect of policies that seek to influence fertility and analyses the policies that have recently been proposed in Uruguay. It concludes that births are infrequently increased following birth incentive policies. However, a coherent set of policies, including broad access to childcare and transfers throughout childhood, may be beneficial in improving the well-being of children, parents, and mothers, regardless of an increase in the number of births, which in any case will be modest. The results of this paper seek to contribute to the discussion on the design of public policies in the current Latin American context of declining fertility.