Women want ‘dads,’ not ‘duds’: A Nobel-winning historian has a theory for falling birthrates, but the economics aren’t so straightforward

Powerful economies are concerned by declining birthrates, prompting various theories including those from Elon Musk and policymakers in France. Nobel prize-winning historian Claudia Goldin proposes that highly educated women need assurance of their partners sharing the parenting workload—signaling dependable "dads"—to invest in themselves and choose to have children.