be fruitful and multiply

I can’t believe I missed this!

Last year, Ralph Keeney and Dinah Vernik developed a model that applies decision analysis to the decision of when to have children. Their model balances career, social life and family life in the decision. Their model gave interesting results:

The model suggests that, especially in cases where both family life and career are important to the woman, having a child much earlier may be a better long-term solution than waiting until she is more established in her career.

I agree! Although with two little girls, I am very, very biased.

Their paper appeared in Decision Analysis (Vol. 4, No. 3, p. 114 – 135).