Where Are the Babies? Labor Market Conditions and Fertility in Europe

Alicia Adsera ()

No 1576, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Abstract: Cross-country differences in both the age at first birth and fertility are substantial in Europe. The paper uses the European Community Household Panel 1994-2000 to investigate the relationship between unemployment of both women (and their spouses) with the timing and number of children. Maternity postponement is acute in countries with high and persistent unemployment since the mid 1980s. Moreover, the paper examines how fertility varies, for a similar level of unemployment, as a function of country-specific institutional arrangements. Wide access to part-time and to permanent positions (such as those in the public sector) is correlated with faster transitions to births. Short-term contracts are associated with delayed fertility instead.

Keywords: fertility; unemployment; public sector; part-time; short-term contracts; maternity benefits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J2 J6 H3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec
Date: 2005-04
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
ftp://repec.iza.org/RePEc/Discussionpaper/dp1576.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1576

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Address: IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Mark Fallak ().