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The cover of the Korean edition of “Fully Grown: Why a Stagnant Economy Is a Sign of Success,” by Dietrich Vollrath

Why do birth rates drop the more advanced a country’s economy becomes? If we apply the “family economics” developed by Gary Becker, we see that parents choose their number of children based on the level where the marginal utility of raising their youngest child equals the marginal cost.

It’s a principle where the cost of each child represents the income that the family misses out on when it spends time raising that child.

In a more advanced economy, increased wages mean that the parents’ time becomes more valuable, and the marginal cost of having and raising another child grows. Their decision to have fewer children is consistent with other economic choices.

As he introduces this argument, Dietrich Vollrath, the author of “Fully Grown: Why a Stagnant Economy Is a Sign of Success,” suggests that a falling birth rate is, in a very broad sense, a sign of success: a reaction to an improved living standard.

As a pioneer of “growth economics,” Vollrath calls on his readers to adopt a new perspective on growth. A diminishing growth rate in an advanced economy is not a sign that something is wrong, as so many of us mistakenly interpret it; rather, he says, it means that the economy is already “fully grown.”

The original English title is far clearer than the Korean one in helping readers understand this somewhat obvious thesis. The Korean title translates as “The End of Growth: How to Overcome a Global Economy That Has Reached Its Peak.” But there is nothing in the book about “ways of overcoming the peak in the global economy.”

Instead, Vollrath marshals various statistics and economic theories to show how slowing growth is a signal of success. It’s a book that comes across as the product of an internal struggle within mainstream economics.

By Lee Jae-sung, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]