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Terra Incognita: The Economics of a Shrinking World

Author

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  • Jesús Fernández-Villaverde
  • Patrick Norrick

Abstract

As of 2026, humanity is likely below replacement fertility. That has never happened before, not in wars or pandemics. But the real surprise is that the fall has been concentrated in low- and middle-income countries and among poorer and less educated women. We fit a single-factor model to 236 countries since 1950: the common component peaked in 1978, and what drives fertility down today are country-specific trends, 219 of them negative and not one leveling off. None of the commonly cited mechanisms can account for this pattern, so we offer a conjecture: modernity itself, which makes a third child expensive and childlessness cheap. Children come in integers, so it takes very little to move a cohort’s fertility rate from 1.8 to 1.3. And nothing in an economy pushes fertility back to 2.1. We close with the main economic consequences, in particular slow growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Jesús Fernández-Villaverde & Patrick Norrick, 2026. "Terra Incognita: The Economics of a Shrinking World," CESifo Working Paper Series 12997, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12997
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Su, Liangjun & Wang, Xia, 2017. "On time-varying factor models: Estimation and testing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 198(1), pages 84-101.
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    3. Hana Sevcikova & Adrian E. Raftery & Patrick Gerland, 2018. "Probabilistic projection of subnational total fertility rates," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(60), pages 1843-1884.
    4. Ševčíková, Hana & Alkema, Leontine & Raftery, Adrian, 2011. "bayesTFR: An R package for Probabilistic Projections of the Total Fertility Rate," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 43(i01).
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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