Springer Nature
Population Research and Policy Review
,  volume 44 ,  issue 2 ,  publication number 21

Does Cutting Child Benefits Reduce Fertility in Larger Families? Evidence from the UK’s Two-Child Limit

Publication type: Journal Article
Publication date: 2025-03-04
Springer Nature
scimago Q1
wos Q2
SJR: 0.981
CiteScore: 3.8
Impact factor: 1.5
ISSN: 01675923, 15737829
Abstract

We study the fertility effects of restricting child-related social assistance to the first two children in the family. As of 2017, all third and subsequent children born on or after 6 April 2017 in the UK were made ineligible for approximately 3000 GBP of means-tested child benefits per year. Using a triple difference and regression discontinuity design, we leverage administrative births microdata to identify the impact of the two-child limit on higher-order births. We find little to no decline in higher-order fertility among low-income families, with our estimates indicating at most small elasticities relative to the literature.

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Reader M. et al. Does Cutting Child Benefits Reduce Fertility in Larger Families? Evidence from the UK’s Two-Child Limit // Population Research and Policy Review. 2025. Vol. 44. No. 2. 21
GOST all authors (up to 50) Copy
Reader M., Portes J., Patrick R. Does Cutting Child Benefits Reduce Fertility in Larger Families? Evidence from the UK’s Two-Child Limit // Population Research and Policy Review. 2025. Vol. 44. No. 2. 21
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TY - JOUR
DO - 10.1007/s11113-025-09935-5
UR - https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11113-025-09935-5
TI - Does Cutting Child Benefits Reduce Fertility in Larger Families? Evidence from the UK’s Two-Child Limit
T2 - Population Research and Policy Review
AU - Reader, Mary
AU - Portes, Jonathan
AU - Patrick, Ruth
PY - 2025
DA - 2025/03/04
PB - Springer Nature
IS - 2
VL - 44
SN - 0167-5923
SN - 1573-7829
ER -
BibTex
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BibTex (up to 50 authors) Copy
@article{2025_Reader,
author = {Mary Reader and Jonathan Portes and Ruth Patrick},
title = {Does Cutting Child Benefits Reduce Fertility in Larger Families? Evidence from the UK’s Two-Child Limit},
journal = {Population Research and Policy Review},
year = {2025},
volume = {44},
publisher = {Springer Nature},
month = {mar},
url = {https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11113-025-09935-5},
number = {2},
pages = {21},
doi = {10.1007/s11113-025-09935-5}
}