So far, the impact of fertility decline on society and the economy has arguably been rather low. In 2012, both the absolute and relative sizes of the workforce were at record highs in Germany (Statistisches Bundesamt 2013c: 115). This indicates that Germany is still at a point in demographic transition where the economic bene- fits arising from the decline in the young dependent population are not yet fully can- celled out by the growing retirement-age population (the so-called “demographic dividend”, see Bloom et al. 2003): The dependency ratio (aged 0-14 and 65 or older relative to the working age population aged 15-64) is currently (0.51) still lower than in 1970 (0.57), before the onset of negative natural population growth. However, this will dramatically change in the coming two decades, when th