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Rindfuss and Brauner-Otto 2008

Introduction

  • Low fertility levels

  • Should we introduce explicit policies to increase fertility?

  • Timing changes: major component of the low levels of period fertility in countries

    • Women have children older: decreases TFR

Institutions and policies

  • Institutions: set of norms or rules, formal or informal, which guide relationships among role occupants in areas of structured social interactions and organizations

  • Policies: formal norms or rules within institutions, and exist until formally changed

  • Appropriate macro units for studying institutions: multi-country units + sub-national units

The importance of timing

  • Timing changes: strongly influence cohort size

  • Feedback loop though the low-fertility trap hypothesis: postponement of fertility produces small cohorts and children from these small cohorts may grow up knowing many adults who had only 1 child or no children

  • Timing and number issues are positively correlated: later means fewer

Childrearing not childbearing

  • Childrearing: generates incompatibility with other roles

  • Increase in the time mothers spend caring for their children - active care

  • Supervisory child care: mother has the responsibility of ensuring the appropriate supervision is in place

    • Reducing parental supervisory time

      • Child care centres

      • Affordable and high quality centres

      • Help from family members

      • Shift work

      • Availability of part-time jobs

      • Convenient school hours

The transition to adulthood

  • Social norms: play a role in the sequencing of events

Education

  • Education occupies more young adult years of men and women

  • Increase in educational enrollment

    • Led to women’s preferences for establishing themselves in the labour market prior to becoming mothers

  • Spread of education: women postpone childbearing

  • Starting schooling at a younger age: earlier start of childbearing

Education: re-entry

  • Important factor: extent to which it is possible to return to school once one has left for a period of time

  • Openness of the educational system

School-to-work transition

  • More vocationally-specific education systems may lead to earlier childbearing

    • It can also lead to a mismatch between labour supply and demand, leading to under-employment

  • Long search times for employment lead to delayed childbearing

Work: re-entry

  • Important factors: maternity leaves, policies, openness of the labour market

  • Family leaves: delay entering parenthood

  • Mothers suffer a substantial penalty when they return to the labour market

  • Uncertainty to find a job after childrearing: women postpone childbearing

Jobs versus careers

  • Higher level of education: more chances to want a career as opposed to having a job

  • Availability of part-time jobs: ease mother’s re-entry into the labour market

    • These are not career-type jobs

Housing

  • Inability to obtain appropriate living quarters likely postpones childbearing

  • Independent household = necessary pre-condition for having children

    • Not affordable nowadays

  • Couples in single-family homes have faster entry into parenthood than those in apartments or other housing types

Rindfuss and Brauner-Otto 2008

Introduction

  • Low fertility levels

  • Should we introduce explicit policies to increase fertility?

  • Timing changes: major component of the low levels of period fertility in countries

    • Women have children older: decreases TFR

Institutions and policies

  • Institutions: set of norms or rules, formal or informal, which guide relationships among role occupants in areas of structured social interactions and organizations

  • Policies: formal norms or rules within institutions, and exist until formally changed

  • Appropriate macro units for studying institutions: multi-country units + sub-national units

The importance of timing

  • Timing changes: strongly influence cohort size

  • Feedback loop though the low-fertility trap hypothesis: postponement of fertility produces small cohorts and children from these small cohorts may grow up knowing many adults who had only 1 child or no children

  • Timing and number issues are positively correlated: later means fewer

Childrearing not childbearing

  • Childrearing: generates incompatibility with other roles

  • Increase in the time mothers spend caring for their children - active care

  • Supervisory child care: mother has the responsibility of ensuring the appropriate supervision is in place

    • Reducing parental supervisory time

      • Child care centres

      • Affordable and high quality centres

      • Help from family members

      • Shift work

      • Availability of part-time jobs

      • Convenient school hours

The transition to adulthood

  • Social norms: play a role in the sequencing of events

Education

  • Education occupies more young adult years of men and women

  • Increase in educational enrollment

    • Led to women’s preferences for establishing themselves in the labour market prior to becoming mothers

  • Spread of education: women postpone childbearing

  • Starting schooling at a younger age: earlier start of childbearing

Education: re-entry

  • Important factor: extent to which it is possible to return to school once one has left for a period of time

  • Openness of the educational system

School-to-work transition

  • More vocationally-specific education systems may lead to earlier childbearing

    • It can also lead to a mismatch between labour supply and demand, leading to under-employment

  • Long search times for employment lead to delayed childbearing

Work: re-entry

  • Important factors: maternity leaves, policies, openness of the labour market

  • Family leaves: delay entering parenthood

  • Mothers suffer a substantial penalty when they return to the labour market

  • Uncertainty to find a job after childrearing: women postpone childbearing

Jobs versus careers

  • Higher level of education: more chances to want a career as opposed to having a job

  • Availability of part-time jobs: ease mother’s re-entry into the labour market

    • These are not career-type jobs

Housing

  • Inability to obtain appropriate living quarters likely postpones childbearing

  • Independent household = necessary pre-condition for having children

    • Not affordable nowadays

  • Couples in single-family homes have faster entry into parenthood than those in apartments or other housing types