Study On Fertility Changes, Consequences And Policy Options Of European Typical Countries

The population transition in European countries can date from the 18th to19^th century. After"the Population Revolution", the birth rates and the fertility rates have fallen since the middle of the 19^th century. Until the middle of the 20th century, they have been near the Replacement Level. Although there was a short period of population compensation and the fertility had risen, till the 1970s, the fertility rates have fallen below the Replacement Level, respectively. Natural Population Growth has gradually become slow, and even the negative growth appeared. The low fertility has raised the wide attention of European countries, and they have provided a series of policies aimed to improve the fertility.The thesis, taking France, German, Poland, Spain and Sweden for examples, firstly studies the changes of the fertility, sets forth the consequences of the fertility changes, based on the above statements, analyses the policies that have been adopted aimed to the fertility changes and provides some implication to China from the European countries'policies.I. Relavent TheoriesThe fertility level in the given period can be described by a series of fertility index, which can be divided as birth rate and fertility rate. Fertility decision, fertility behavior and fertility changes have been the focus of the western population theories and have played a significant role in the studies of the western population theories for a long time. The typical representatives are Bongaarts's Intermediate Variable, Caldwell's The Wealth Flows Theory, Leibenstein's Pitfalls in Benefit-Cost of Birth, Becker's The Interaction between Quantity and Quality of Children and Easterlin's Supply-Demand of Fertility...