Institutional, economic and cultural factors affecting the decision of having a child in European countries : a couple’s approach
(2021)
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- Abstract
- In order to answer the research questions of this thesis, three chapters are produced. The first is devoted to the association between economic uncertainty and the transition to first birth in Greece. The second chapter tries to investigate if religious practice correlates with fertility intentions in eleven European countries (Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia, Germany, Romania, Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic and Sweden). Finally, the third chapter is devoted to the link between the socioeconomic characteristics of the couple and the use of parental leave by the father in Germany. In the second chapter, I answer the research questions regarding the effect of couples' economic uncertainty on their fertility in Greece, and how the 2008 Great Recession has affected the fertility of couples in the same country. In this chapter, the database used is EU-SILC (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions), and more precisely the waves from 2005 to 2013, in order to cover the period prior to the economic crisis of 2008 and the period of crisis. The results show a double path towards the first birth as a Greek specificity. First, couples where both partners have a high income are more likely to have a first child, while couples where both partners have a permanent contract are also more likely to have a first child. Second, high educational homogamy and hypogamy are positively associated with first birth. This result could indicate an advantage for educated women in negotiating partner involvement in family work and / or in the outsourcing of family work. Finally, during the Great Recession of 2008, all types of household organization - even couples where both partners work with a permanent contract - decreased their likelihood of having a first child. This result allows me to conclude that an economic recession can worsen expectations about the future and reduce the likelihood of having a child, even for people in good jobs. Particularly in the case of Greece, where the shrinking of the welfare state during the crisis of 2008 made the balance between work and family even more difficult. The research question on the association of religious practice with fertility intentions is dealt with in the third chapter. In this chapter, in order to measure the link between religious practice and fertility intentions, I used data from the GGP (Generations and Gender Program) for eleven European countries, and I used the first wave of these databases. The results show that there is a positive correlation between religious practice and fertility intentions: People who attend religious services at least once a month are more likely to want a second and third child than those who attend less. This result confirms previous literature showing that religious teachings promote pronatalist ideals, norms and behaviours, and those who attend religious services are more attached to these teachings. In addition, the results verify that the association between religiosity and fertility intentions is modified by the grandparents' regular help with childcare in the case of the transition to the second child. Based on these results, I can conclude that due to their stronger familism, most religious grandparents try to establish a positive family relationship with adult children and grandchildren, promoting fertility intentions. The research questions concerning the link between the socioeconomic characteristics of the couple and the use of parental leave by the father in Germany are answered in chapter four of the thesis. This chapter focuses on the main determinants of the use of parental leave by the father in Germany and on the impact of the 2007 reform on the use of parental leave by men. In this chapter, another point of interest is whether the determinants of the use of parental leave have changed with the reform of 2007. The database used is the G-SOEP (German Socio-Economic Panel) which provides information on current living conditions, values, social changes, as well as the relationships and interdependencies between these areas. The analysis is based on data from 2001 to 2016 and the final sample includes couples in which adult men are under the age of 55 and have at least one child under the age of 8. The results show first of all that the reform doubled the percentage of use of parental leave by fathers. The effect of the reform was stronger among well-educated homogamous couples. From these results it can be concluded that the reduction in the opportunity costs associated with the benefits of the reform further increased the use of parental leave among men who already had egalitarian gender attitudes (such as highly educated men). Finally, the results show that men with a partner with a higher education or higher income are more inclined to use parental leave than other men. These results confirm the theory of relative resources: more than the characteristics of the father himself, the comparison of the opportunity costs between the two partners more decisively determines his decision to obtain parental leave. Finally, in the fifth chapter, I present the main results of the analysis, the limits of this thesis and I propose future research.
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Dantis, C. (2021). Institutional, economic and cultural factors affecting the decision of having a child in European countries : a couple’s approach. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/112278