[quote=dumbrenter]What kind of a person/family would make a decision to have or not have children based on economy?[/quote]
It’s Demography 101, really. And it’s not the economy per se that dictates family size.

These examples are precisely what does not go through people’s minds:

-“Gee, the GDP per capita (or the unemployment rate, or the federal government deficit, etc.) hasn’t improved for more than four quarters, so let’s not have more children (or let’s not get married yet).”

Instead, the thinking goes more like this:

-“Gee, I got laid off (or half of my neighbors were laid off, or I haven’t been able to find a job after 12 months, etc.), so I can’t afford to have a child now, or afford to marry now, let’s wait for my situation to improve.”

Our friend above gave us an example based on her family. Many folks simply felt that they couldn’t afford to have (more) kids:

[quote=UCGal]I have my grandmother’s diaries from this timeframe. Very enlightening. (…) My grandmother had a pregnancy scare (…) Lets just say she considered all options (at least emotionally, as written in her diary). Fortunately, it turned out to be a false alarm. They could *not* afford a second child.[/quote]