Family Policies and Fertility in Norway

We address the relationship between family policies and fertility in Norway, including three somewhat different policies: parental leave, formal childcare, and the childcare cash benefit. We use administrative register data covering the period 1995–2004. Norwegian family policies are designed both to improve reconciliation of work and family and to improve childcare choices for parents. The analysis shows different patterns of work–family reconciliation and fertility choices among one-child couples and two-child couples. The parental leave policy is the most influential of the three policies on second-birth intensities, especially if parental leave is also taken by the father. The introduction of the childcare cash benefit is most influential on third-birth intensities. This means that policies that promote paternal involvement in childcare and gender equality are positively associated with second births, while policies giving more general family support are positively associated with third births.     

Deadline for Parenthood: Fertility Postponement and Age Norms in Poland

The postponement of childbearing is occurring across Europe, but the paths of this trend differ profoundly from country to country. In Poland, as in other Central and Eastern European countries, most women have their first child at a relatively young age. This article asks about the role of age norms in sustaining the pattern of early motherhood. We investigate young adults’ perceptions of age in relation to their fertility choices. We find that age is, indeed, a salient dimension that structures and regulates individual childbearing plans. The qualitative approach of our study allows for gaining insights into how age norms are explained, argued about and sanctioned. Finally, we reconstruct the mechanisms of the normative influence of age limits (deadlines) on fertility behaviour, improving our understanding of the timing of childbearing.     

Country-Specific Conditions for Work and Family Reconciliation: An Attempt at Quantification

The country-specific conditions for work and family reconciliation (family policies, labour market structures and gender norms) are believed to influence tensions between paid employment and childbearing. So far there have been very few attempts to quantify these conditions into a single measure which would allow for comparisons across countries of the magnitude of the barriers that working parents encounter. Such a quantitative index could also facilitate a quantitative investigation of the association between the macro-level conditions for work and family reconciliation and fertility at the individual level. In this paper, we seek to fill this gap by proposing a quantitative index of country-specific conditions for work and family reconciliation, which may be used, for example, in a two-level regression framework. The index takes into account all three components of the conditions for work and family reconciliation. We also perform a series of uncertainty and sensitivity analyses which verify the robustness of our assumptions and which illustrate the range of the index volatility.     

影响生育的国外家庭政策分析

利用联合国公开发表的资料以及英国、加拿大和日本相关部门的官网信息．就低生育水平对不同国家家庭政策的影响以及有关国家对生育水平具有隐性或显性作用的家庭政策进行了分析。研究结果表明,低生育水平是有关国家态度转变的依据,态度的转变也带来了政策上的相应变化。三个国家的家庭政策具有明显的增强家庭养育子女经济实力、提升家庭照料子女能力以及促进家庭自身良性发展的作用。     

The Impact of Family Policies on Fertility Trends in Developed Countries

We examine how strongly fertility trends respond to family policies in OECD countries. In the light of the recent fertility rebound observed in several OECD countries, we empirically test the impact of different family policy instruments on fertility, using macro panel data from 18 OECD countries that spans the years 1982–2007. Our results confirm that each instrument of the family policy package (paid leave, childcare services and financial transfers) has a positive influence on average, suggesting that the combination of these forms of support for working parents during their children’s early years is likely to facilitate parents’ choice to have children. Policy levers do not all have the same weight, however: in-cash benefits covering childhood after the year of childbirth and the provision of childcare services for children under age three have a larger potential influence on fertility than leave entitlements and benefits granted around childbirth. Moreover, we find that the influence of each policy measure varies across different family policy contexts. Our findings are robust after controlling for birth postponement, endogeneity, time-lagged fertility reactions and for different aspects of national contexts, such as female labour market participation, unemployment, labour market protection and the proportion of children born out of marriage.     

The Cost of Low Fertility in Europe

We analyze the effect of fertility on income per capita with a particular focus on the experience of Europe. For European countries with below-replacement fertility, the cost of continued low fertility will only be observed in the long run. We show that in the short run, a fall in the fertility rate will lower the youth dependency ratio and increase the working-age share, thus raising income per capita. In the long run, however, the burden of old-age dependency dominates the youth dependency decline, and continued low fertility will lead to small working-age shares in the absence of large migration inflows. We show that the currently very high working-age shares generated by the recent declines in fertility and migration inflows are not sustainable, and that significant drops in the relative size of the working-age population should be expected. Without substantial adjustments in labor force participation or migration policies, the potential negative repercussions on the European economy are large.     

Will unwed new mothers seek employment?: The role of government and social support

In this paper, we use recent data on unwed new mothers living in urban cities to examine employment plans of low-income women the year following childbirth. We conceptually distinguish work expectations, a cognition; from work, a behavior. We argue that government support and social support are related to the work expectations of unwed new mothers. The results provide evidence that the receipt of various forms of government and social support are positively associated with work expectations. The only variations from this pattern were found for government medical assistance and support from the baby's father. Overall, these findings are contrary to the idea that self-sufficiency is more likely to be achieved when support is denied. Our results suggest that any effort to engage lowincome unwed mothers in work activity should consider the importance of support for employment. Rebecca S. Powers is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at East Carolina University. Her research interests include social inequality, gender, work, and immigration. She is currently studying the effects of gender norms and employment outcomes for single mothers. Michelle M. Livermore is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at Louisiana State University. Her work focuses on poverty and related policies, in particular factors related to work among poor women and social capital in poor communities.     

Education,Other Socioeconomic Characteristics Across the Life Course,and Fertility Among Finnish Men

The level of education and other adult socioeconomic characteristics of men are known to associate with their fertility, but early-life socioeconomic characteristics may also be related. We studied how men’s adult and early-life socioeconomic characteristics are associated with their eventual fertility and whether the differences therein by educational level are explained or mediated by other socioeconomic characteristics. The data on men born in 1940–1950 (N = 37,082) were derived from the 1950 Finnish census, which is linked to later registers. Standard and sibling fixed-effects Poisson and logistic regression models were used. Education and other characteristics were positively associated with the number of children, largely stemming from a higher likelihood of a first birth among the more socioeconomically advantaged men. The educational gradient in the number of children was not explained by early socioeconomic or other characteristics shared by brothers, but occupational position and income in adulthood mediated approximately half of the association. Parity-specific differences existed: education and many other socioeconomic characteristics predicted the likelihood of a first birth more strongly than that of a second birth, and the mediating role of occupational position and income was also strongest for first births. Relatively small differences were found in the likelihood of a third birth. In men, education is positively associated with eventual fertility after controlling for early socioeconomic and other characteristics shared by brothers. Selective entry into fatherhood based on economic provider potential may contribute considerably to educational differentials in the number of children among men.     

中国应着力开发二次人口红利

中国劳动力无限供给格局已趋于终结,一次人口红利正逐步衰减,将来要想为经济高增长提供人的支撑,就必须转向二次人口红利开发,着力提高人力资本水平,在这一方面中国还有很大的挖掘空间。借鉴美欧日韩等国家二次人口红利的开发经验,我们发现,开发二次人口红利的关键是：延长义务教育,强化职业教育,矫正高等教育,优化在职培训,加强健康保护,打破劳动力流动障碍。     

Like Mother(-in-Law) Like Daughter? Influence of the Older Generation’s Fertility Behaviours on Women’s Desired Family Size in Bihar,India

This paper investigates the associations between preferred family size of women in rural Bihar, India and the fertility behaviours of their mother and mother-in-law. Scheduled interviews of 440 pairs of married women aged 16–34 years and their mothers-in-law were conducted in 2011. Preferred family size is first measured by Coombs scale, allowing us to capture latent desired number of children and then categorized into three categories (low, medium and high). Women’s preferred family size is estimated using ordered logistic regression. We find that the family size preferences are not associated with mother’s fertility but with mother’s education. Mother-in-law’s desired number of grandchildren is positively associated with women’s preferred family size. However, when the woman has higher education than her mother-in-law, her preferred family size gets smaller, suggesting that education provides women with greater autonomy in their decision-making on childbearing.     

Women in prison: A comparative assessment

This article examines women prisoners as a percent of the prison populations of twentysix countries. In this study, we hypothesize that in countries where women have greater social, educational, and economic advancements, women will also comprise the larger percentages of the total prison population. Findings from this study indicate that the countries where women constitute the highest percentages of the prison population are also those where women have high literacy rates. The percent of certain crimes committed by women correlates significantly and positively with educational and economic indicators, as well as measures of women's advancements in the workforce. Negative and significant correlations are seen between fertility rates and the number of women as a percent of the prison population, as well as educational variables. Ultimately, the findings indicate that in countries where women have advanced the greatest with regards to education, labor, and social status, the percent of women in the prison population and of all offenders for certain crime categories is also higher.     

The Impact of Labour-Force Participation on Childbearing Behaviour: Pro-Cyclical Fertility in Sweden during the 1980s and the 1990s

During the last two decades, Sweden has experienced strong fluctuations both in its economy and in its level of childbearing. A period of high employment and increasing fertility has been followed by a period of lower employment and decreasing fertility since the beginning of the 1990s. In this paper, we use register data for Swedish women in order to examine how various types of attachment to the labour market affect women's propensity to give birth at different parities. Specifically, we show what impact changes in women's employment status have had on recorded fertility trends in Sweden. We find that women who have relatively low levels of income and women who are enrolled as students generally have lower fertility than other women. We also find that a rise in the number of women with such characteristics can explain part of the decrease in fertility during the 1990s. It is evident, however, that other factors, working at the macro level, also have to be considered when one wants to explain the fluctuating fertility of Sweden. Social policy is one such factor. In sum, we find a pattern of pro-cyclical fertility, where levels of female earnings are positively related to levels of childbearing.     

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

Cross-country differences in both the age at first birth and fertility are substantial in Europe. This paper uses distinct fluctuations in unemployment rates across European countries during the 1980s and the 1990s combined with broad differences in their labor market arrangements to analyze the associations between fertility timing and the changing economic environment with close to 50,000 women from 13 European countries. First, it employs time-varying measures of aggregate market conditions in each woman??s country as covariates and second, it adds micro-measures of each woman??s labor market history to the models. High and persistent unemployment in a country is associated with delays in childbearing (and second births). The association is robust to diverse measures of unemployment and to controls for family-friendly policies. Besides moderate unemployment, a large public employment sector (which provides security and benefits) is coupled with faster transitions to all births. Women with temporary contracts, mostly in Southern Europe, are the least likely to give birth to a second child.     

Diverse Effects of Women’s Employment on Fertility: Insights From Italy and Poland

In this paper, we look into how country-specific factors shape the interrelationship between childbearing and women’s labor supply. To this end, we compare Italy and Poland, two low-fertility countries where the country-specific obstacles to work and family reconciliation are similarly strong but which differ in the history of women’s labor supply and the extent to which couples’ material aspirations are satisfied by men’s earnings. Our findings show that women’s employment clearly conflicts with childbearing in Italy, while in Poland women tend to combine the two activities, despite the similar difficulties they face. These results challenged the standard microeconomic explanations and point to the importance of other country-specific factors, apart from conditions for work and family reconciliation, in shaping women’s employment and fertility decisions, such as economic incentives or culturally rooted behavioral patterns. Overall, our study provides thus foundations for explaining the variation in the relationship between women’s employment and fertility in an enlarged Europe.     

性别、组织和政党——对建党初期女党员群体的历史考察

建党初期的女党员们在革命实践中争取机会和发展空间,将五四运动中获得的性别平等理念付诸实践,致力于自身解放以及争取全部的妇女解放,成为实际推动中国共产党所领导的妇女运动不断发展的主体.即使面对社会不平等的性别制度,以及党组织内部存在一定的性别分工,她们仍然努力挑战传统的性别规范,彰显了其主体性和能动性.     

Late,But Not Too Late? Postponement of First Birth Among Highly Educated US Women

We examine the link between the postponement of parenthood and fertility outcomes among highly educated women in the USA born in 1920–1986, using data from the CPS June Supplement 1979–2016. We argue that the postponement–low fertility nexus noted in demographic and biomedical research is especially relevant for women who pursue postgraduate education because of the potential overlap of education completion, early career stages, and family formation. The results show that women with postgraduate education differ from women with college education in terms of the timing of the first birth, childlessness, and completed fertility. While the postponement trend, which began with the cohorts born in the 1940s, has continued among highly educated women in the USA, its associations with childlessness and completed parity have changed considerably over subsequent cohorts. We delineate five distinct postponement phases over the 80-year observation window, consistent with variation over time in the prevalence of strategies for combining tertiary education and employment with family formation.     

A cross-national look at married women's earnings dependency

Using the Luxembourg Income Study data we examine married women's dependency on their husbands' earnings in nine Western industrialized countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. When we examine the level and degree of dependency, and the labor force participation of married women across countries, the nine countries fall into the three clusters delineated in Esping-Andersen's welfare states typology. But when we examine the determinants of the dependency within each country, the clustering disappears. Wives' dependency increases with age, the presence of young children, and the number of children. It is reduced when wives' labor force participation and education are high relative to their husbands' and in families that rely more on unearned sources of income. The similarity of patterns across countries suggests that gender differences in the work-family nexus are deeply entrenched in all countries and continue even in the face of very active social policy to minize their effects. This is a revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August 1995, Washington DC. Her current research focuses on gender inequality and parents' time allocation between work and family. She conducts research on various aspects of family demography, including household and family characteristics, co-resident grandparent families, cohabitation, and child care. With Suzanne Bianchi, she is completing a research monograph on trends in the American family. Her research focuses on gender, work, and family issues.     

Religiosity and Fertility Intentions: Can the Gender Regime Explain Cross-Country Differences?

Research on the relationship between religiosity and fertility intentions revealed substantial cross-national differences. In some countries, a strong and positive effect of religiosity on fertility intentions was found, while in others, the effect was weaker or not significant, and the reasons underlying these cross-national differences are still unclear. The aim of this article is to explain these macro-level differences from the perspective of the prevailing gender regime. We argue that in countries with more traditional regimes, a stronger effect of religiosity on fertility intentions could be expected than in countries with a more egalitarian view. We make use of the first wave of the Generations and Gender Survey and incorporate data from a total of 12 European countries in our analysis. We examine the influence of gender regime according to various macro-level indicators on gender attitudes and gender equality using meta-regression analyses. We also conduct robustness checks using other indicators such as the Gender Development Index. Our results reveal that the gender regime is only able to explain these differences in certain situations, specifically those relating to the long-term fertility intentions of men.     

湖南人口结构现状及其风险规避

以湖南人口为研究对象,从性别、年龄、文化程度、城乡差别和地域差别等多个角度来探察,不难发现湖南人口结构存在再生产能力、养老保险、劳动力减少、赡养以及管理等诸多风险。为了优化湖南人口结构和防范人口结构风险,必须合理调整和改善生育政策,大力探索和发展老龄产业,积极创新和健全社会保障体系,加快提升城镇化发展水平,科学建立人口管理信息化体系。     

鼓励生育的政策及其效果：国际经验、回顾和展望

在已有的鼓励生育的政策中,现金补贴政策具有操作简单、作用直接、指向明确的特点,对鼓励生育有积极作用,其实施效果受补贴力度、父母受教育水平以及家庭收入等因素影响;税收优惠政策实施时间较晚,具有操作复杂、调节精细化等特点,但其作用尚未取得一致性的结论,其实施效果受育龄妇女年龄、教育水平以及家庭收入水平等因素影响;产假政策具有覆盖面广、历史悠久、制度完备等特点,对鼓励生育有积极作用,但效果较小,其实施效果受家庭收入、女性劳动供给等因素影响。国际上可供借鉴的经验包括：提高政策支持力度,及早进行干预,更容易产生效果;在干预政策的选择上,现金补贴政策可先于税收政策,产假制度可作为辅助,使政策之间形成配合;对政策进行精细化设计,如鼓励多孩和大家庭、男性产假等。