Women Rule: Preferences and Fertility in Australian Households

Elliott Fan () and Pushkar Maitra

The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 2013, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-30

Abstract: Using a unique dataset from Australia, we investigate how individual fertility preferences translate into fertility realizations. We find consistent evidence that the wife’s preference is more important than the husband’s preference in predicting subsequent births, no matter whether her initial fertility desire is higher or lower than that of her partner. We also explore the effects of the introduction of the non-means-tested Baby Bonus introduced in 2004 by testing whether the hypothesis that the cash transfers from the scheme increase the bargaining power of the partner with higher fertility desire, thus leading to an increase in fertility for couples with disagreement on fertility plans. Our findings do not support this hypothesis. They also do not suggest any significant fertility-enhancing effect of the scheme.

Keywords: fertility preference; births; within couple disagreements; baby bonus; Australia; fertility preference; births; within couple disagreements; baby bonus; Australia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C41 J12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2012-0021

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