Regional variation in women’s education-fertility nexus in Northern and Western Europe

Jonas Wood, Leen Marynissen, Jessica Nisén, Peter Fallesen, Karel Neels, Alessandra Trimarchi, Lars Dommermuth, Ruben Van Gaalen, Martin Kolk and Pekka Martikainen
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Jessica Nisén: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Alessandra Trimarchi: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Martin Kolk: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Pekka Martikainen: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

No WP-2021-021, MPIDR Working Papers from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

Abstract: The relationship between female education and fertility is a long-standing topic in demography, our understanding of which continues to develop. Since the turn of the century, a growing body of research has documented cross-national variation in the female educational gradient in fertility, with mostly positive gradients in Western and Northern European countries. However, such national gradients may mask important variation in the educational gradient in fertility at the subnational level. This study is among the first to use large-scale individual-level administrative data to study regional educational gradients in parity-specific fertility in Northern and Western European countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. Adopting hazard models and model-based Synthetic Parity Progression Ratios, our results highlight considerable subnational regional variation in the educational gradient in first, second and third births. We conclude that, in addition to variation between countries, substantial within-country regional variation deserves to receive future scholarly attention. The documentation of regional variation in the female education-fertility nexus is a substantial extension of cross-national comparisons and contributes to the empirical and theoretical debate on the context-contingencies of the education-fertility nexus.

Keywords: Europe; education; fertility; population registers; regional demography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-eur and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2021-021

DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2021-021

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