How will falling fertility rates hurt the economy? With Melissa Kearney

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  In rich countries around the world, we are having fewer and fewer children.

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  In the US, fertility rates are now below the replacement rate of 2.1,

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  or what it would take to sustain a constant population.

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  This is a slow but massively important trend, socially, culturally and economically.

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  An ageing and shrinking population has consequences for the workforce, the public finances and the environment.

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  This week we are going to ask, how do falling fertility rates and ageing affect the economy?

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  And what can we do about it?

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  This is The Economics Show with Samaya Keynes.

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  I'm joined this week by Melissa Carney, director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group,

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  which recently put out a series, Demographic Headwinds,

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  the Economic Consequences of Lower Birth Rates and Longer Lives in the US.

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  She's joining me from Chevy Chase, Maryland.

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  Melissa, hello.

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  Hi, thanks for having me.

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  It is great to have you with me.

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  Okay, on a scale of one to 10.

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  How big of an economic challenge is the current trend in U.S. Fertility?

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  Oh, that's a hard one.

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  I do n't want to sound like an alarmist and put this close to 10,

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  but I definitely am going to put it above the median of five.

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