Family policies, defined as measures designed to support families with children, are part of modern welfare states. They range from punctual measures provided at the birth of a child to measures aimed at making it easier for parents to combine work and family responsibilities. The actual goal of these measures varies largely, being explicitly pronatalist in some cases while embracing a more equalitarian principle in others. Despite the variations in the nature of these policies and their stated goal, they are nonetheless all generally assumed to have a positive effect on fertility. The aim of this paper is threefold. First, the aim is to summarize the main findings from the literature on the impact of family policies on fertility. This is done by adopting a historical perspective, including the review of the early studies in this field of research and by distinguishing different methodologies. Second, the aim is to reflect on these findings, including the role of national context and the framing of policies. Third, the aim is also to reflect on the limited impact of policy interventions on fertility, stressing that their “success” should instead be measured in terms of their ability to support families holistically including their work‐life balance.

中文翻译：

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低生育率国家的家庭政策：证据和反思


家庭政策被定义为旨在支持有孩子的家庭的措施，是现代福利国家的一部分。这些措施包括在孩子出生时提供的准时措施，以及旨在使父母更容易兼顾工作和家庭责任的措施。这些措施的实际目标差异很大，在某些情况下明确是生育主义的，而在另一些情况下则采用更加平等的原则。尽管这些政策的性质及其既定目标各不相同，但人们普遍认为它们都对生育率有积极影响。本文的目标有三个。首先，目的是总结文献中关于家庭政策对生育率影响的主要发现。这是通过采用历史视角来实现的，包括对该研究领域早期研究的回顾以及通过区分不同的方法。其次，目的是反思这些发现，包括国家背景的作用和政策框架。第三，其目的也是反思政策干预对生育率的有限影响，强调他们的“成功”应该根据他们全面支持家庭的能力来衡量，包括他们的工作与生活平衡。