Governments Are Spending Billions to Raise Birth Rates. The iPhone May Have Already Won.

Jun 10, 2026 - 12:01
Governments Are Spending Billions to Raise Birth Rates. The iPhone May Have Already Won.
A new NBER study by Middlebury College economists finds that the iPhone's 2007 rollout explains up to 52% of the U.S. fertility decline — exposing a fundamental gap in the pronatalist policy playbook that no baby bonus can fix.