Can child care subsidies increase fertility willingness? "The monthly subsidy is 1000 yuan. Are you willing to have two children / three children?" In January this year, in order to further optimize the fertility support policy, Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission carried out the survey on the parenting cost of infants under 3 years old among some people of childbearing age. A question about parenting subsidies in the questionnaire aroused widespread concern. In August last year, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province announced that it was a local registered residence family with two or three children, and each child was given a subsidy of 500 yuan per month until the child was three years old. The reporter found that since the second half of last year, Hunan, Jilin, Anhui and other provinces have issued documents clearly proposing to establish a childcare subsidy system. How to pay child care subsidies? What is the effect of encouraging fertility? What age groups still need support? Solve some "milk powder money" "Although 500 yuan per month is not much, it can solve part of the 'milk powder money'." Xu Junfeng, vice mayor of Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province, said. Many provinces in China have introduced childcare subsidy systems to provide supporting support for the "three child policy". Last November, the "14th five year plan" for public services in Guangdong Province proposed to explore the granting of inclusive economic subsidies to children. In January this year, Beijing issued the implementation plan on optimizing Fertility Policies and promoting long-term balanced development of the population, which made it clear to gradually establish and improve the family rearing subsidy system. Zhejiang Province stipulates that the people's governments of counties (cities and districts) can, according to local conditions, give childcare allowances and childcare expenses to families with infants under the age of 3. Heilongjiang Province made it clear that the municipal and county-level people's governments should establish a childcare subsidy system for families who give birth to a second or more children according to law, and give appropriate preference to border areas and old revolutionary base areas. Jilin Province advocates the establishment of a county-level childcare subsidy system, and the provincial finance will give appropriate subsidies according to the implementation of the system. Compared with the principled provisions at the provincial level, some cities and counties have planned the implementation details. For families with two or three children, Panzhihua City sets the subsidy as 500 yuan per child per month. Linze County, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, grants subsidies on an annual basis, with 5000 yuan per year for two child families and 10000 yuan per year for three child families until the child is three years old. Jolin, a Beijing Baoma who has just given birth to a second child, looks forward to the early implementation of the policy. "The second child has just reached the full moon, and milk powder, complementary food and diapers all have to spend money." She said that from the extension of maternity leave to the issuance of parental subsidies, we can see the efforts made by the state to reduce the burden of parenting, and look forward to the subsequent introduction of more supporting measures. What is the incentive effect of childcare subsidies To what extent can the parenting subsidy "icing on the cake" for families with many children enhance their willingness to bear children? The reporter interviewed several families of childbearing age at random. Some said that "although the subsidy is good, it will not decide to have children". A white-collar worker admitted that parenting is not just an economic account. "The original intention of the parental subsidy policy is to increase the fertility rate by reducing the direct cost of childbirth, which will stimulate areas with low per capita income to a certain extent." Wang Tianyu, associate professor of the Department of social security, School of labor and personnel, Renmin University of China, analyzed that the reproductive decision-making of individual families is very complex, and the reproductive cost is only one of the influencing factors. The survey shows that the decision-making from zero to one child has little to do with fertility costs, and whether to have a second child is also mainly determined by fertility preferences. Li Yue, an associate researcher at China population and Development Research Center, said that the child care subsidy policy may increase the short-term fertility rate rather than the lifelong fertility level. "The policy of encouraging the family to have two children in advance may have a limited effect on the fertility rate, but the policy of encouraging the family to have three children in advance will no doubt improve the fertility rate." The affordability of local finance should also be taken into account. Wang Tianyu calculated that the national birth population in 2021 was 10.62 million, of which the number of second children was about 4.6 million. If only two child families are subsidized, calculated according to the birth scale of last year, assuming that the subsidy of 500 yuan per child per month is paid to the age of 3, the annual investment will be as high as 80 billion yuan. In Wang Tianyu's view, the greatest significance of the policy is not to stimulate fertility in the short term, but to build a culture of socialization of fertility costs and caring for families with many children. The role of culture in fertility decision-making can only be revealed after a certain period of time. More efforts are needed to reduce the burden of childbirth "Behind the child care subsidy system, we need a perfect infant care service system, and a fertility friendly society calls for policy synergy." Li Yue said. Li Yue introduced that at present, the measures taken by various countries to encourage childbirth can be divided into three categories: first, economic support, including various subsidies and tax relief policies; Second, service support, including the development of childcare services, home help, after-school care, etc; Third, time support, including maternity leave, parental leave, paternity leave and other leave systems. For the further implementation of the child care subsidy system, Wang Tianyu suggested not to "flood": "the State Council recently issued the notice on the establishment of special additional deduction of individual income tax for the care of infants and young children under the age of 3". From the perspective of maintaining social equity and saving financial funds, the child care subsidy may also pay attention to those families and individuals whose income is below the threshold of individual income tax. " The preferential housing policy is also a powerful measure of economic support. It is reported that Beijing, Jiangsu, Anhui and other places have successively proposed that when renting public rental houses, families that meet the local housing security conditions and have minor children can be given appropriate care in terms of house type selection according to the number of minor children. According to the data released by the National Health Commission, more than one-third of families have demand for childcare services, but the enrollment rate of infants and young children in various childcare institutions in China is only about 5.5%. "Inclusive sex care institutions are an important fertility support force, but their development is slow at present." Li Yue said. According to the current policy, for each new nursery place, inclusive nursery institutions can enjoy a subsidy of 10000 yuan. Once it becomes an inclusive care institution, it should recruit students according to the guidance price of the local government. Li Yue said that in the case of high operating costs, the income and expenditure of nursery institutions are unbalanced and lack of application power. A future direction is to provide monthly operation subsidies according to the number of enrollment, and appropriately reduce rent and taxes, so as to really reduce the price of childcare services. In the revision of family planning regulations in various regions, extending maternity leave and adding parental leave are a highlight. Li Yue believes that while adjusting the holiday system, we should also clarify how to share the cost, explore the cost sharing mechanism of the state, enterprises and families, reduce employment discrimination and remove the worries of women of childbearing age. (Xinhua News Agency)