Economic and Institutional Context and Second Births in Seven European Countries

The extent to which mothers progress to a second child varies greatly between European countries. Although both institutional and economic context are believed to be partly responsible for these differences, available research on economic conditions and fertility mostly focuses on first births and s...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Population research and policy review 2016-06, Vol.35 (3), p.305-325
Main Authors: Wood, Jonas, Neels, Karel, Vergauwen, Jorik
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Birth
Births
Child care
Child care services
Childbirth & labor
Children
Children & youth
Costs
Database models
Demography
Earnings
Eastern Europe
Economic analysis
Economic conditions
Economic models
Economic research
Economic uncertainty
Economics
Education
Educational attainment
Employment
Families & family life
Family allowances
Family policy
Family studies
Females
Fertility
Fertility rates
Harmonization
Hazards
Heterogeneity
Human capital
Impact analysis
Labor force
Labor market
Labor markets
Labour market
Low income groups
Mothers
Opportunity costs
Planck, Max
Population Economics
Population policy
Public policy
Recessions
Social Sciences
Sociology
Studies
Temporary employment
Uncertainty
Unemployment
Western Europe
Women
Working women
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The extent to which mothers progress to a second child varies greatly between European countries. Although both institutional and economic context are believed to be partly responsible for these differences, available research on economic conditions and fertility mostly focuses on first births and studies on family policy and fertility have hitherto insufficiently addressed population heterogeneity. Combining longitudinal microdata from the Harmonized Histories with contextual data on labour market uncertainty and family policy, this paper uses discrete-time hazard models to analyse the impact of economic and institutional context on second birth hazards of 22,298 women in 7 European countries between 1970 and 2002. Particular attention is paid to variation in the contextual effects by level of education. We find that aggregate-level unemployment and temporary employment reduce second birth hazards, particularly for low- and medium-level educated women. Family policies are positively related to second birth hazards. Whereas family allowances stimulate second births particularly among low educated mothers, the positive effect of childcare is invariant by level of education.
ISSN:0167-5923
1573-7829
DOI:10.1007/s11113-016-9389-x