Work from Home and Fertility

Cevat Giray Aksoy, Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Katelyn Cranney, Steven J. Davis, Mathias Dolls and Pablo Zarate
Additional contact information
Cevat Giray Aksoy: King’s College London
Jose Maria Barrero: Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México
Katelyn Cranney: Stanford University
Steven J. Davis: Stanford University
Pablo Zarate: Princeton University

No 839, ADB Economics Working Paper Series from Asian Development Bank

Abstract: We establish a positive relationship between work from home (WFH) and fertility, drawing on our Global Survey of Working Arrangements (38 economies, N = 19,241) and our US Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes (N = 102,411). Respondents who WFH at least 1 day per week had more biological children from 2021 to early 2025, and plan to have more children in the future, compared to observationally similar persons who do not WFH. Respondents whose spouse or domestic partner works from home also report higher recent and planned fertility. When both partners WFH at least 1 day per week, our results suggest that total lifetime fertility is greater by 0.2 children in our global sample (0.18 in our United States sample), as compared to couples where neither partner engages in any WFH. We find qualitatively similar patterns in our Asian subsample (N = 4,323), but some results are statistically insignificant for Asian women.

Keywords: remote work; fertility and fertility intentions; global survey; working arrangements; Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 D13 J13 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35
Date: 2026-03-23
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https://www.adb.org/publications/work-home-and-fertility Full text

Related works:
Working Paper: Work from Home and Fertility (2026)
Working Paper: Work from Home and Fertility (2026)
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