Happiness and childbearing across Europe

Arnstein Aassve, Maria Sironi and Alice Goisis

No 10, Working Papers from "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi

Abstract: In this paper we analyse the relationship between happiness and childbearing taking a comparative perspective. We argue that fertility and happiness are somewhat linked and we investigate whether there are important differences across European countries. Using happiness as a welfare measure offers important benefits over income especially when interest lies in understanding how individuals' wellbeing is associated with childbearing outcomes. We use the European Social Survey (ESS) and apply simple regression techniques, controlling for country differences, and find indeed a positive and significant association between happiness and childbearing. However, parents do not appear to be consistently happier in some countries than in others. The final set of analyses reveals a very strong interconnection between, childbearing, partnership and happiness.

Keywords: happiness; childbearing; European social survey; ESS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2009-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hap, nep-ltv and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Happiness and Childbearing Across Europe (2012)
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