Italy’s Path to Very Low Fertility: The Adequacy of Economic and Second Demographic Transition Theories

David I. Kertzer, Michael J. White (), Laura Bernardi () and Giuseppe Gabrielli
Additional contact information
David I. Kertzer: Brown University
Michael J. White: Brown University
Laura Bernardi: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Giuseppe Gabrielli: University of Bari

European Journal of Population, 2009, vol. 25, issue 1, No 5, 89-115

Abstract: Abstract The deep drop of the fertility rate in Italy to among the lowest in the world challenges contemporary theories of childbearing and family building. Among high-income countries, Italy was presumed to have characteristics of family values and female labor force participation that would favor higher fertility than its European neighbors to the north. We test competing economic and cultural explanations, drawing on new nationally representative, longitudinal data to examine first union, first birth, and second birth. Our event history analysis finds some support for economic determinants of family formation and fertility, but the clear importance of regional differences and of secularization suggests that such an explanation is at best incomplete and that cultural and ideational factors must be considered.

Keywords: Fertility; Union formation; Italy; Demographic theories; Event history analysis; Social change; Geographical differences; Fécondité; Formation des unions; Italie; Théories démographiques; Analyse biographique; Changement social; Différences géographiques (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10680-008-9159-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:25:y:2009:i:1:d:10.1007_s10680-008-9159-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10680

DOI: 10.1007/s10680-008-9159-5

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Population is currently edited by Helga A.G. de Valk

More articles in European Journal of Population from Springer, European Association for Population Studies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().