This means in order to achieve higher reproduction women should give birth while being at universities – perhaps planning birth at summer breaks or whatever. And universities have to become more flexible in this area, perhaps giving flexible terms of exams, ability to have a temporary break, absences on lectures or laboratories justified by children problems etc.

I think in many cases religious belief will override the influence of education and economics.

Low-income parents have low expectations and few resources. Even assuming the “nurturist” ideas were right, it would probably be a safer bet to have many kids and hope one through luck or guile makes it into middle-class status.

As you go up the income scale, expectations for your child’s future rise, but resources tend not to rise as quickly. Your kids could (theoretically) not just fail to rise in status but fall dramatically. There’s also at least a public zeitgeist (and arguably a reality) that the middle class is vanishing, so you’re fighting with other parents for slots in a smaller and smaller pool. Putting all your eggs into one basket could seem more attractive – assuming you believe nurturism.

But once you get into the realms of the truly wealthy, things change. The necessity of two incomes lessens, or you may even be able to hire a full-time nanny. You know you will not need to hope for college scholarships. But more importantly than resources, the upper-class is “sticky” like the underclass, meaning a much greater degree of confidence in the ability of your children to maintain your standard of living. So why not have as many as possible? It might divide the family fortune when you die, but that’s their problem, not yours.

Not only does more education push the decision to have children later, but the increasing costs of higher ed and the resultant debt burden makes it financially very difficult for years after school. For people with professional degrees, high incomes are offset by high debt loads.

My nephew with the largest income has nine children. Another military career guy known to me has six. A pharmacist only has three boys so I can’t completely document based on first hand experience but it seems to compute that if lack of money limits family size then at least some of the well to do will have more children. I do know that many celebs seem to have a fair number of young usually scattered among several mates.