Abstract
This study uses satisfaction data and examines how the financial burden of having children differs across countries. To do this, we focus our attention on the peculiar movement of satisfaction in the financial domain of life, which is measured by standardizing financial satisfaction by overall life satisfaction. Performing regression analyses with World and European Integrated Values Survey, we obtain the results that the negative impact of having an additional child on satisfaction becomes particularly greater in the financial domain as total fertility rate (TFR) decreases. The results also indicate that having children offers a sense of financial security to the elderly in high TFR countries while this is not the case in lower TFR countries. These results are consistent the idea that the heavier financial burden of having children is a major cause of fertility decline.
