An Exploratory Study on the Effectiveness of Population Disincentives in Preventing Higher-order Births in Singapore.

Abstract

The Singapore population disincentive program consists of 10 parts: 1) increasing accouchement fees in Government hospitals with each additional child; 2) no paid maternity leave for 3rd or subsequent child; 3) no income tax relief to 4th or subsequent child; 4) no priority to large families for subsidized housing; 5) only families with less than 3 children are eligible to sublet rooms; 6) lower priority for choice of primary school for children of the 4th birth order and above; 7) higher charge for antenatal care if pregnant woman already has 2 or more living children; 8) sterilization will waive accouchement fees; 9) female Government servants with 2 or more chidren are eligible for paid leave for sterilization; and 10) all government servants get 7 days unrecorded full-pay following sterilization. Escalating accouchment fee was the most effective disincentive. The majority (81/99) judged Singapore to be overcrowded and welcomed government intervention. The consensus approved of government intervention but 1/3 respondents did not endorse the governments increased role generally because of sex preference for children. The majority (61) did not feel that the disincentives had an inherent bias against the poor. Among respondents only 3 were very much affected by the disincentives; the majority (72) indicated that disincentives had nothing to do with their family size decisions. Disincentives were most effective for lower working class persons as a group. The evidence indicated that the disincentives by themselves had little consequence on individual family size limitations.