Rolf Degen summarizing... Having children does increase happiness, unless it is associated with financial difficulties

Children, unhappiness and family finances. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew E. Clark. Journal of Population Economics (2020). September 29 2020. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-020-00798-y

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1310827907334504448

Abstract: The common finding of a zero or negative correlation between the presence of children and parental well-being continues to generate research interest. We consider international data, including well over one million observations on Europeans from 11 years of Eurobarometer surveys. We first replicate this negative finding, both in the overall data and then for most different marital statuses. Children are expensive: controlling for financial difficulties turns our estimated child coefficients positive. We argue that difficulties paying the bills explain the pattern of existing results by parental education and income and by country income and social support. Last, we underline that not all children are the same, with stepchildren commonly having a more negative correlation with well-being than children from the current relationship.