Fertility Determinants and Economic Uncertainty:An Assessment Using European Panel Data

George Hondroyiannis

No 96, Working Papers from Bank of Greece

Abstract: This paper examines the determinants of fertility, using panel data for twenty-seven European countries. We employ panel co-integration to estimate fertility as function of demographic and economic variables. We show that low fertility in most industrialized countries in Europe is due to low infant mortality rates, high female employment, low nuptiality rate and high opportunity cost of having children. Using two measures of economic uncertainty, which are associated with labor market decisions - a production (an output) volatility measure and the unemployment rate - we examine to what extent economic insecurities affect fertility decisions. The empirical results show that both measures of economic uncertainty have a significant negative impact on fertility implying that labor market insecurities might be a significant factor affecting fertility decisions.

Keywords: Fertility Choice; Panel Estimation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C22 J13 O40 O57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2009-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Journal Article: Fertility Determinants and Economic Uncertainty: An Assessment Using European Panel Data (2010)
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