When I asked people with 3+ kids what was the extra difficulty of having more than 2 kids, I remember them mentioning the problem of driving the whole family in one car.
But I would still assume that when people decide whether to have the third child, other things are more important. And as you write, the problem can be fixed by choosing the right type of car.
I haven’t read the study, so I wonder whether it properly controls for wealth. Poor families have more children on average, and are also less likely to own a car. Similarly, absence of a father may have an impact on family beyond leaving a front seat empty.
They did at least try to control for wealth: “We find that the estimated effects are driven entirely by households with access to a car, consistent with car usage mattering directly. The effect is also concentrated in households where there is an adult male in the household, increasing the likelihood that both front seats are occupied by adults. Somewhat surprisingly, the effects are larger among households with higher income levels. This suggests that the pressures leading to reduced birthrates may not be entirely financial, or that these groups bear a greater burden through higher compliance rates.”
When I asked people with 3+ kids what was the extra difficulty of having more than 2 kids, I remember them mentioning the problem of driving the whole family in one car.
But I would still assume that when people decide whether to have the third child, other things are more important. And as you write, the problem can be fixed by choosing the right type of car.
I haven’t read the study, so I wonder whether it properly controls for wealth. Poor families have more children on average, and are also less likely to own a car. Similarly, absence of a father may have an impact on family beyond leaving a front seat empty.
They did at least try to control for wealth: “We find that the estimated effects are driven entirely by households with access to a car, consistent with car usage mattering directly. The effect is also concentrated in households where there is an adult male in the household, increasing the likelihood that both front seats are occupied by adults. Somewhat surprisingly, the effects are larger among households with higher income levels. This suggests that the pressures leading to reduced birthrates may not be entirely financial, or that these groups bear a greater burden through higher compliance rates.”