Differences in Delaying Motherhood Across European Countries: Empirical Evidence from the ECHP

Motherhood postponement and fertility decline have been observed in almost all developed countries. In this article, we aim to assess some of the potential determinants of first childbirth timing in Europe, in a comparative perspective, using data from the European Community Household Panel Survey (ECHP). We estimate, separately by country, hazard rates for the timing at first childbirth conditioning to education and work characteristics. Moreover, in order to explain differences between European countries, we decompose the differences between rates in the part due to the national population composition by specific characteristics and the part due to different propensities for women with given characteristics.     

Human mobility in the context of environmental and climate change: Recent data collection tools from the International Organization for Migration to address key methodological and conceptual issues

This paper outlines recent data collection tools and methodologies that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been using in order to gather information on human mobility as influenced by environmental factors and their impacts. It looks at alternative ways for collecting and analysing data in the face of methodological challenges related to the multicausality of movements, the voluntary/involuntary continuum in human (im)mobility decisions in the context of environmental and climate change, and the policy and epistemological imperative from viewing migration as an adaptation strategy. The paper finds that certain data collection approaches can be quickly deployed in rapid-onset disasters as well as applied in contexts of gradual, slow-onset environmental change to provide information useful for operational responses to immediate crises and/or for developing policies in response. Some of the tools can be useful in both contexts and may support both immediate and long-term operational, policy and research objectives.     

Survey response and survey characteristics: microlevel evidence from the European Community Household Panel

Summary.  The paper presents microlevel evidence on the role of the sociodemographic characteristics of a population and the characteristics of the data collection process as predictors of survey response. Our evidence is based on the public use files of the European Community Household Panel, a longitudinal household survey covering the countries of the European Union, whose attractive feature is the high level of comparability across countries and over time. We model the response process as the outcome of two sequential events: contact between the interviewer and an eligible interviewee, and co-operation by the interviewee. Our model allows for dependence between the ease of contact and the propensity to co-operate, taking into account the censoring problem caused by the fact that we observe whether a person is a respondent only if she has been contacted.     

The effects of income imputation on microanalyses: evidence from the European Community Household Panel

Summary.  Social surveys are usually affected by item and unit non-response. Since it is unlikely that a sample of respondents is a random sample, social scientists should take the missing data problem into account in their empirical analyses. Typically, survey methodologists try to simplify the work of data users by 'completing' the data, filling the missing variables through imputation. The aim of the paper is to give data users some guidelines on how to assess the effects of imputation on their microlevel analyses. We focus attention on the potential bias that is caused by imputation in the analysis of income variables, using the European Community Household Panel as an illustration.     

REGULATION AND INVESTMENT

We use newly assembled data on regulation in several sectors of many OECD countries to provide evidence that regulatory reform of product markets is associated with an increase in investment. A component of reform that plays a very important role is entry liberalization, but privatization also has a substantial effect on investment. Sensitivity analysis suggests that our results are robust. (JEL: E22, L5)     

Vaginal birth after caesarean: Views of women from countries with low VBAC rates

Problem and background

Vaginal birth after caesarean section is a safe option for the majority of women. Seeking women’s views can be of help in understanding factors of importance for achieving vaginal birth in countries where the vaginal birth rates after caesarean is low.