- Feb 5, 2002
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The iPhone may have played a role in the falling birth rates in the United States by changing how young people socialize, form relationships and spend their time, new research suggests.
Researchers Caitlin Myers and Ezekiel Hooper of Middlebury College in Vermont analyzed the connection between the smartphone’s 2007 release and the overall decrease in fertility since then in a paper published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The research has not yet been independently reviewed.
“The U.S. general fertility rate has fallen by 22% since 2007, a sustained decline not readily explained by economic conditions, contraceptive use, housing or childcare costs, or other commonly cited factors,” Myers and Hooper wrote. “We assess the potential role of a different shock: the diffusion of the smartphone.”
The first iPhone was rolled out in 2007, and the researchers noted that their study uses that timeframe as “a natural experiment,” drawing on data from 2007 through 2011, when iPhones were sold only on AT&T.
Continued below.
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Researchers Caitlin Myers and Ezekiel Hooper of Middlebury College in Vermont analyzed the connection between the smartphone’s 2007 release and the overall decrease in fertility since then in a paper published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The research has not yet been independently reviewed.
“The U.S. general fertility rate has fallen by 22% since 2007, a sustained decline not readily explained by economic conditions, contraceptive use, housing or childcare costs, or other commonly cited factors,” Myers and Hooper wrote. “We assess the potential role of a different shock: the diffusion of the smartphone.”
The first iPhone was rolled out in 2007, and the researchers noted that their study uses that timeframe as “a natural experiment,” drawing on data from 2007 through 2011, when iPhones were sold only on AT&T.
Continued below.
Is the iPhone deepening America's fertility decline? Researchers think so
The iPhone may have played a role in the falling birth rates in the United States by changing how young people socialize, form relationships and spend their time, new research suggests
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