Socioeconomic differentials in fertility and family formation

The increase in the proportion of children born to cohabiters is usually taken as a sign that societies have reached a stage in the family formation processes where cohabitation is a legitimate alternative to marriage, which is losing importance as an institution. Recent research in Europe has shown that marriage usually takes places among unmarried people in the years that follow the birth of a child, indicating that marriage is being postponed, but it is still the preferred setting for childrearing. This paper analyzes the case of Chile, where the proportion of children born to unmarried mothers is about 70 percent, whereas cohabitation is less than 20 percent. The paper ask whether Chile is the scenery for the same type of union transitions that are being observed in Europe, which may explain the contradiction between the proportion of children born outside of marriage and the proportion of cohabiters

We will examine fertility differentials by women's education and locality in South Korea for the period 1985 - 2010 using 10% samples of 2000, 2005, and 2010 censuses. Using birth history reconstruction method and computing period parity progression ratios for each year from 1985 to 2010, our analyses will be able to examine patterns of fertility differentials by women's education in detail, in terms of marriage, progression to first birth, to second birth, to third and higher order births, as well as period fertility rates. The main research questions we try to answer are: (1) how did the fertility differentials by women's education change during the 1985 - 2010 period? (2) to what extent do population composition by education explain the province level fertility differentials in fertility? and (3) what are the implications of these differentials on population composition in the future?

This research considers whether the availability and investments of parents and partners influences women’s birth progressions, and whether interactions between these investments and socioeconomic position (SEP) are observed. There is ample evidence that parents and partners influence women’s fertility throughout the world. Parents may influence women’s fertility through proximity, childcare provision, financial transfers, and emotional support. Investments of partners in household tasks are positively linked to fertility desires. SEP is associated with fertility, but also availability and investments of parents and partners. Our analysis of Generations and Gender Survey data confirm different availabilities of parents and partner investments by SEP: wealth positively relates to partner investments and the proportions of women with living parents. Results from discrete-time event history models indicate that education level and partner investments negatively relate to birth progressions, but that these effects differ by education: partner investments have a less negative relationship to the probability of birth for highly educated women than women with lower completed education. Further analyses will be used to determine if the effects of family and SEP may vary depending on women’s parity progressions.

Studies of women’s childlessness have shown strong associations with socioeconomic status (SES) indicators, particularly education. In addition to socioeconomic considerations, families are known to influence women’s fertility outcomes throughout the world though various mechanisms: childcare provision, financial transfers, emotional closeness, and proximity. This research tests the hypothesis that the effect of kin proximity, measured by living with one’s parents into adulthood, on women’s probability of remaining childless will vary depending upon SES environment. We find that while living with one’s parents in adulthood positively relates to being childless, this association is stronger for low-wealth women than high-wealth women controlling for education, partnership, and other factors known to affect fertility. It is suggested that the effects of proximity to family on women’s fertility may vary by wealth due to the effects of resource stress or abundance. Either way, these results suggest clearly that the associations between family indicators and women’s fertility are flexible with SES environments.

The transitional decline of fertility in Italy has never been studied using micro-data, with the exception of a few small areas. For the first time, we use individual retrospective fertility data collected for 20% of married women aged 40 or older interviewed in the 1971 census in the Veneto Region (North-East Italy), a “late-comer” area in the context of Western European fertility decline (TFR=5.0 in 1871 and 1921, 2.5 in 1951). In order to consider broad explanations of fertility decline, we combine individual retrospective data with other information available at two territorial levels (65 districts or large cities and 582 municipalities), using a three-level clustered regression model (district, municipality, woman). We find that: (1) even if the (few) university-educated women born in the last decades of the 19th century already had a TFR around two, this value is not seen among women with low levels of education until those born fifty years later; (2) the link between fertility and secularization strengthens cohort after cohort, whereas the connections between fertility and industrialization and fertility and urbanization weaken.

This study aimed to identify fertility differentials among married women by focusing on the contribution of key determinants such as child loss and contraceptive use, while controlling for socio-demographic variables, for instance, age, age at first marriage, educational attainment, employment status, and place of residence. The results of this study are used to suggest policy recommendations to improve family planning in South Sulawesi province.
Secondary data from quantitative research collected by the Indonesia Demographic Health Survey 2007 in the South Sulawesi province included 982 selected married women aged between 15-49 years old, who ever had children born. Interestingly, this study found that higher educated women use less long-term contraception methods than less educated women. Results from linear multiple regressions indicated that when other variables are added together with key independent variables, the explanatory power of the independent variables to predict the number of children ever born increased from roughly 40 percent to 51 percent. In general, child loss was the utmost determinant of fertility compared to other key determinants. Therefore, this study has highlighted one of the most important challenges for reducing infant mortality and raising the prevalence of long-term contraceptive use.

One of the major demographic changes during the past 200 years is the emergence of the two-child norm as part of the creation of the modern family. Although the process of fertility decline in the West has received considerable attention in demographic research, most of the research has been macro oriented. For this reason, we know a great deal about the timing of the fertility transition in different regions, but less about specific features and causes. The aim of this paper is to use longitudinal micro-level data for seven local populations in Europe and North America in the 19th and 20th centuries to further elaborate on the role of socioeconomic factors in the fertility transition. By applying identical analytical models and social class schemes we are able to study the impact of socioeconomic status on fertility before, during and also after the fertility transition. This allows us not only to test hypotheses about the reversal of class differences in the transition, but also to address possible determinants of fertility decline more generally. More specifically we look at the development of socioeconomic differences in marital fertility and relate it to common theories on fertility behavior as adjustment and innovation processes.

The rapid economic growth and resulted impact on house hold income in India have been accompanied by major rapid changes in population. Hence, this has also resulted in the overall fertility decline in the country. During the recent decades of development, especially in the post liberalization period the country as a whole has witnessed not only economic growth but also expansion of infrastructural facilities, unexpectedly, this has provided added impetus to population growth through a demographic transition. There have been significant changes in the entire course of population movement in India, especially in the growth and distribution of population and more importantly in its age structure transition. In view of this, the present exercise tried to analyze the major changes in population groups such as children, youth, adults and elderly population with respect to southern states of India. The data for the study have come from Census, Sample Registration System (SRS) and indiastat.com website. For the study a comparative analysis has been done to examine the effects of TFR decline on changing age structure population during the recent decades i.e. from 1991 to 2011 across the southern states of India.

This paper presents a twofold objective. First, it analyzes interracial marriage rate differences according to religious affiliation. Secondly, it compares the most relevant interracial marriage changes from 1980 to 2010 using loglinear models. The first analysis focuses on results until 2000. They indicate that when spouses or partners have the same religion, the marriage percentage distribution remains practically the same as the total distribution. However, when analyzing marriages between religiously heterogamous partners, all racially homogamous marriages decrease, and all interracial marriages increase. Additionally, all the model association coefficients demonstrate that having the same religion is important not only for interracial marriages but also for all homogamous couples. In Brazil, the strength of religious belief is highly relevant to unions, even for interracial couples. Religion has considerable power over partner choice. Although interracial unions increased between 1980 and 2000, religious heterogamous unions changed at a different pace. In the last decade, changes in the Brazilian religious scenario and racial composition motivated the 2010 analysis.

Several macroeconomic studies suggest that fertility starts to re-increase with income in highly developed countries. We propose a deeper insight in the mechanisms behind income and fertility in highly developed countries by focusing on individual fertility decisions linked to education, individual and household income. First, we empirically test whether an U-shaped pattern between income and fertility can be confirmed for micro panel data in European countries. Second, we analyze whether increases in education, in women’s wage income and in their partners’ wage income have a higher impact on quantum- or on tempo- aspects of fertility. We investigate how birth postponement is affected by ‘social status’ in France and find important differences between income groups in terms of timing of births. Finally, we discuss policy implications of our results.