Office Hours: Birth Rate Policies with Professor Alex Jingwei He

Baby bonuses, enhanced parental leave, and childcare access are public policies aimed at slowing the declining birth rate — but by themselves, they are unlikely to change anyone’s mind about having children. Faced with an aging population’s need for health care and pensions, how can policymakers realistically intervene? Is the birth rate an effective policy target in the first place? In this episode, Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science Alex Jingwei He joins Host Priscilla Lee ’25 to ask what policies can (and cannot) do to encourage childbirth in their shared home of Hong Kong and East Asia. More broadly, this episode is about the role of public policy — and policy scientists — in complex social issues.

Episode notes and further reading here.

Edited and produced by Priscilla Lee ’25.