The cost of raising a child: Equivalence scales in the United States
利用美国全国代表性样本，计算出一个主观等价尺度，表明一个两成人一孩家庭需增加18%的收入才能达到与无孩家庭相同的生活满意度，并评估了相关福利政策的充足性。
As fertility rates drop to another historical low, understanding the economic burden of child-rearing on household income, a main economic reason for falling birth rate, has become more crucial than ever. This study calculates a subjective equivalence scale explaining how much the income of a two-adult, one-child household should increase to maintain the same level of life satisfaction as a two-adult household, using a nationally representative U.S. sample. The results suggest that the equivalence scale for a two-adult, one-child household is 1.18, indicating that raising a child costs 18 % of a two-adult household’s income. Our analysis indicates that programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) may be overly generous for households with one child, while the tax deduction policy does not cover child-rearing costs sufficiently.