Generating generations: Intergenerational transmission of fertility, southern Sweden 1813-1967

Louise Cormack and Ingrid K van Dijk

No kp6mc_v1, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: During the historical fertility transition, women’s fertility fell sharply within only a few generations. In this paper, we study similarities in fertility outcomes between mothers and daughters before, during and after the fertility transition in a socioeconomically diverse population in southern Sweden (1813-1967). We find evidence of an intergenerational transmission of completed fertility emerging towards the end and after the fertility transition, when families were smaller. The transmission was not uniform in the population. The largest and earliest transmission occurred among urban and first-born women. These women may have been most strongly affected in their family size ideals by their upbringing because of urban economic circumstances, and small family size ideals influencing the eldest daughters more strongly, respectively. We do not observe significant differences by socioeconomic status, suggesting that it is not one social group driving the overall correlation in family size between mothers and daughters. We interpret the findings as evidence of intergenerational transmission of fertility being an outcome, and not a driving factor, of the historical fertility transition in the study area.

Date: 2026-11-04
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://osf.io/download/6aeb0c519b18738fffca341c/

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:osf:socarx:kp6mc_v1

DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/kp6mc_v1

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in SocArXiv from Center for Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by OSF ().