Abstract
In May 2006, Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced a radical new pack-age of pronatalist policies designed to halt, and possibly reverse, the steep decline in Russia’s birth rate over the past 15 years. The package included increased child benefits, longer maternity leave, and a payment of over US$9,000 to each woman who has a second child. While economists and demographers have long debated the efficacy of such pronatalist government policies in raising birth rates, the intention of this package of measures was clear—to stop the large declines in population that have affected Russia since the early 1990s.