Composition of fertility costs: This includes the direct costs from pregnancy to childbirth (the "cost of childbirth"), the cost of raising and educating a child (the "cost of childbirth"), and the time and opportunity costs of a woman to give birth. 3
The level of fertility costs: The average cost of raising a child aged 0-17 in a family across the country is 5380,000 yuan, and the average cost of raising children from 0 years old to college graduation is about 680,000 yuan. 4 The cost of raising children in urban households is generally higher than that of rural families, with the highest cost of raising children in Shanghai and Beijing, and the lowest cost of raising children in Qinghai. 1 Compared to other countries, the financial burden of raising children in China is the highest in the world.
The impact of fertility costs: Raising children leads to a decrease in women's paid working hours and leisure time, as well as a decrease in the rate of wages. 5 These time costs and opportunity costs are one of the main factors that inhibit women's desire to have children, and they are also the embodiment of the phenomenon of "motherhood punishment" that is hotly discussed in society.
Policy recommendations on the cost of childbearingIt is urgent to introduce policies at the national level to reduce the cost of childbirth for families of childbearing age, including cash subsidies, individual income tax and social security exemptions, housing subsidies, the construction of additional nurseries, equal parental leave for men and women, the promotion of mixed office, the introduction of foreign nannies, the support of assisted reproductive technology, the protection of the rights and interests of single-parent families, the abolition of the high school entrance examination and the shortening of the school system.