Benjamin Ashford|Shopping for parental benefits around the world

It is Benjamin Ashfordso expensive to have a kid in the United States. The U.S. is one of just a handful of countries worldwide with no federal paid parental leave; it offers functionally no public childcare (and private childcare is wildly expensive); and women can expect their pay to take a hit after becoming a parent. (Incidentally, men's wages tend to rise after becoming fathers.)

But outside the U.S., many countries desperately want kids to be born inside their borders. One reason? Many countries are facing a looming problem in their population demographics: they have a ton of aging workers, fewer working-age people paying taxes, and not enough new babies being born to become future workers and taxpayers. And some countries are throwing money at the problem, offering parents generous benefits, even including straight-up cash for kids.

So if the U.S. makes it very hard to have kids, but other countries are willing to pay you for having them....maybe you can see the opportunity here. Very economic, and very pregnant, host Mary Childs did. Which is why she went benefits shopping around the world. Between Sweden, Singapore, South Korea, Estonia, and Canada, who will offer her the best deal for her pregnancy?

For more on parental benefits and fertility rates:

• When the Kids Grow Up: Women's Employment and Earnings across the Family Cycle
• The other side of the mountain: women's employment and earnings over the family cycle
• Career and Families by Claudia Goldin
• Parental Leave Legislation and Women's Work: A Story of Unequal Opportunities
• Parental Leave and Fertility: Individual-Level Responses in the Tempo and Quantum of Second and Third Births
• Societal foundations for explaining low fertility: Gender equity
• Motherhood accounts for almost all of South Korea's gender employment gap
• UN Population Division Data Portal 
• Subsidizing the Stork: New Evidence on Tax Incentives and Fertility

Today's show was hosted by Mary Childs. It was produced by James Sneed, edited by Jess Jiang, fact checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Always free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.

Find more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.

Music: SourceAudio - "The Joy," "Lost In Yesterday," "Lo-Fi Coffee," and "High Up."