Regional Science for Babies

Reflections on Alessandra’s Talk

Rachel Franklin

Center for Geographic Analysis | Harvard University

2026-02-13

The persuasive case for caring about (regional) fertility

1.

Today’s kids are tomorrow’s workers, innovators, and caregivers

2.

Today’s kids are tomorrow’s inter-regional migrants



3.

Places are inter-dependent

4.

Policies are inter-dependent too

5.

Perhaps most importantly: fertility as an indicator of regional wellbeing (up to a point)

6.

Geography matters for studying fertility

Challenges of low fertility also matter closer to home

Some last thoughts on Alessandra’s talk

  • The risks attendant to demographic policy for demographic policy’s sake (pro-natalism is kind of weird)

  • The added dimension of demographic compositional change

  • Role for regional science: regional development policy as demographic policy

The End.