free domestic help and nursery schools in Berlin and Paris, relief in Hungary – Corriere.it

lead to at least two the number of children for each woman. This is the challenge for Italy, which starts from 1.24. Note: 2 would be a result that is barely sufficient to keep the existing population constant, net of the balance between immigrants and emigrants. The urgent change of pace: The number of women of childbearing age is already decreasing year after year. But two children per woman not an impossible goal: several countries that had seen the birth rate fall are getting closer to this goal. There are essentially two recipes in the field, variously combined with each other.

Sweden and Western Europe

On the one hand c

i are the countries of Western Europe, with Sweden leading the way, followed by France and Germany. Here we tried to encourage women’s work — without two salaries it’s difficult to have a second child — at the same time increasing the services, from nursery schools upwards, which allow domestic care tasks to be combined with commitments outside the home. Then there are the countries of Eastern Europe, Hungary in the leadwhich primarily focused on tax breaks provided to families who fill the cradles. What changes from one street to another? Granting tax relief to families that have the most children can make birth rate indicators react immediately. But, in addition to being onerous for the public finances, it may not be enough for a structural result. The decisions related to the birth rate depend on the economic resources of each nucleus, but also on the services that can be counted on. In general, a good combination of the two elements would be useful, says Cattolica demographer Alessandro Rosina.

The Hungarian case

In Hungary, women’s employment is decidedly lower than that of men: 15.3 percentage points of difference (in any case less than Italy which has 19). The Orbn government has focused heavily on tax relief for families who have more children. Some examples:Andlifetime income tax exemption for women with at least 4 children; low-interest loan of 31,500 euros for women under 40 who are getting married for the first time, a program of loans for families with at least two children to buy a house with help to pay off the mortgage which is worth around 3,000 euros for each child. All these interventions have brought spending to support the birth rate to 6% of GDP in Hungary, while children per woman have risen from 1.54 in 2017 to 1.6 today.

In Germany: 3.3% of GDP is invested in the birth rate

Models in the wake of the Hungarian one are also adopted in Poland and Russia. Different situation in Germany. There are 1.6 children per woman, which has risen sharply in recent years, and 3.3% of GDP is invested in the birth rate. Most of the resources are mobilized in the form of services such as free crèches. Free the magic word: if the cost of the tuition exceeds 500 euros per month as in our house, for the pockets of many families the nest becomes out of reach. Then there is a cultural issue: the Germans and the French know that the nursery does not make the growth of newborns worse but improves. In France and Sweden, nursery schools are attended by 50% of children. Note: in France and Germany the gap between male and female employment is lowest: 7.9%. France also offers important tax relief for those who bring home cleaners and babysitters into compliance: with the check employment Regular work is cheaper than undeclared work (in Italy 80% of domestic help, mostly women, is undeclared). Finally, the case of Spain is interesting. Here the focus is on 16 weeks of leave for fathers (10 days in Italy) to encourage the sharing of family tasks and consequently the work of women.