Can smartphones help explain the drop in birth rates?
Are smartphones causing people to have fewer children? A provocative new working paper explores the persistent drop in birth rates since the iPhone was introduced nearly two decades ago.
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Economy Can smartphones help explain the drop in birth rates? June 12, 20265:00 AM ET Scott Horsley Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveils the iPhone in 2007. A new working paper suggests the spread of smartphones helps explain the persistent decline in birth rates in the nearly two decades since. David Paul Morris/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption David Paul Morris/Getty Images Sign up for the Planet Money newsletter. The world is confusing. Economics can help. Economist Caitlin Myers has a striking explanation for why women are having fewer babies: It's the smartphones. Myers and other researchers have been searching for what's behind the sharp drop in fertility over the last two decades. Birth rates in the U.S. have fallen by 22% since 2007.
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