A paper by UCLA economist Martha Bailey, “The Economics of Childbearing: Trends, Progress, and Challenges,” is featured in a recent New York Times article on fertility trends in the United States. The article highlights Bailey’s analysis of recent declines in U.S. fertility, emphasizing that lower birth rates may reflect delayed childbearing rather than a permanent decision to forgo motherhood.

You can read the paper in the Annual Review of Economics here, and the New York Times coverage here.