Educational differences in fertility desires, intentions and behaviour: a life course perspective

Despite a long tradition of studying the relationship between education and fertility outcomes less is known about how educational differences in fertility intentions are formed and translated into achieved births over the life course. This paper provides new insights using data from a large cohort study and Miller’s Traits-Desires-Intentions-Behaviour framework for understanding childbearing. We examine how parental aspirations for education, educational ability in childhood, and educational attainment in young adulthood relate to: males’ and females’ fertility desires in adolescence; fertility intentions in early adulthood; and educational differences in the achievement of fertility intentions. We conclude that family building preferences expressed in adolescence, especially those for the timing of entry into parenthood are shaped by parental socio-economic background, mediated through educational ability and parental expectations for education. In young adulthood, no clear, consistent educational gradient in intended family size is found. However, there is a negative educational gradient in the likelihood of achieving intended births by age 46, especially for women. The findings indicate the importance of educational differences in employment and partnership behaviour in mediating these relationships

Meeting online or offline? Patterns and trends for co-resident couples in early 21st century Britain

Data from the 2010-12 National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL-3) are used to document trends and patterns in where co-resident couples in Britain first met, focusing specifically on the rapid rise of meeting online, which both echoes and differs from a corresponding US increase; in Britain, meeting online largely appears to have substituted for meetings in settings to which access is relatively unrestricted, e.g. pubs and public places. While meeting online appears widespread across British society, variations are identified and linked to ideas from the online dating and place of meeting literatures. Offline partner availability, and how well the processes within offline and online settings suit particular types of people, are interpreted as underpinning many of these variations. Perhaps surprisingly, meeting online does not appear class-related, and involves levels of socio-demographic homogamy that do not differ systematically from those for compositionally-heterogeneous offline settings

A longitudinal analysis of moving desires, expectations and actual moving behaviour

Residential mobility theory proposes that moves are often preceded by the expression of moving desires and expectations. Much research has investigated how individuals form these premove thoughts, with a largely separate literature examining actual mobility. Although a growing number of studies link premove thoughts to subsequent moving behaviour, these often do not distinguish explicitly between different types and combinations of premove thoughts. Using 1998-2006 British Household Panel Survey data, this study investigates whether moving desires and expectations are empirically distinct premove thoughts. Using multinomial regression models we demonstrate that moving desires and expectations have different meanings, and are often held in combination: the factors associated with expecting to move differ depending upon whether the move is also desired (and vice versa). Next, using panel logistic regression models, we show that different desire expectation combinations have different effects on the probability of subsequent moving behaviour. The study identified two important groups generally overlooked in the literature: those who expect undesired moves and those who desire to move without expecting this to happen.PostprintPeer reviewe

Cooperation in Partnerships: The Role of Breakups and Reputation

We investigate experimentally if endogenous partnership formation can improve efficiency in social dilemma situations. Subjects play multiple two-player public goods games, where they can break up with their current partner after every fourth game. Subjects without a partner provide rankings of the available other singles regarding their preferred subject to be matched with. A stable marriage mechanism determines the new matches. We vary the information subjects have when they express their preferences for their future matches and also if staying in a partnership leads to a cost or a bonus. We find that endogenous group formation can increase efficiency. Both the provision of contribution history at the time of re-matching and bonuses for staying in a partnership have positive effects. At least one of the two positive factors has to be present for an efficiency improvement. The presence of both leads to the best results.Social Dilemma, Endogenous Group Formation, Public Goods

Does unemployment help or hinder becoming independent? : the role of employment status for leaving the parental home

"There are two broad trends in industrialised countries motivating this paper: On the one hand, the life phase between youth and adulthood has prolonged and diversified; on the other hand, entering the labour market has become more complex and insecure. In this paper we combine two aspects of these trends by analysing the effect of unemployment on leaving home. Extending previous research, we use a resource-oriented theoretical framework that allows us to elaborate the impact of employment related resources of different actors. Our main hypothesis is that availability of employment related resources matters for leaving home. Further we assume that several actors are involved in the decision for leaving home: individual, welfare state, parents and partner. Resources of each can be pooled, and resources of other actors can compensate for own shortages. In the analyses we use life history data of two birth cohorts in West Germany. We find that for young adults with partners own unemployment accelerates leaving home, while for singles leaving home is delayed. Parental unemployment or unemployment compensation benefits also have only an effect if young adults have no partners. Thus, partnership status plays a crucial role in shaping the transitions of youth to residential independence." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Jugendliche, junge Erwachsene, Statusmobilität, Wohnverhalten, Entscheidungsfindung, arbeitslose Jugendliche, allein Stehende, nichteheliche Lebensgemeinschaft, Partnerschaft, Eltern, Wohlfahrtsstaat, Familienstand, Arbeitslosigkeit - Auswirkungen

Partnership and Hold-Up in Early America

Williamson (1985) argues that individuals form firms with specific internal governance structures to mitigate certain types of opportunistic behavior that may inhibit efficient contracting between independent contractors. But once firms are established, the individuals that comprise them may still act opportunistically. This paper investigates a specific historical case: the partnership in early America. Partnerships grappled with information-based problems, such as adverse selection, moral hazard, as well as ex ante and ex post contractual opportunism, including hold-up. Asset specificity and imperfect contracts made partnerships vulnerable to hold-up, especially when one partner invested in a sunk asset that enhanced the productivity of all other partners. This was a particular problem facing existing partners when they invited a new partner into their firm. Empirical evidence from the mid-nineteenth century suggests that individuals mitigated the effects of pre- and post-contractual opportunism by forming partnerships with others of similar age, productivity, and capital. This finding brings the traditional interpretation of partnerships as mentor-prot‚g‚ relationships into question.

The influence of employment uncertainty on childbearing in France: A tempo or quantum effect?

This paper investigates whether unemployment and insecure employment periods merely delay fertility or also impact on completed fertility in France. It analyses both the timing of first childbearing and the fertility reached at age 40. Different indicators of declining employment security are used, i.e. current individual employment characteristics, the accumulation of unstable jobs, and aggregate-level indicators of employment uncertainty. Male unemployment has a negative influence on the timing of first childbearing, while periods of insecure employment delay fertility for women. Completed fertility is impacted by unemployment spells only for men who have faced long-term unemployment. Employment uncertainty thus tends to delay first parenthood but has a relatively weak effect on lifetime fertility in France. Generous state support to families associated with a generous unemployment insurance system, and the strong French two-child family norm may explain why economic uncertainty affects fertility less than elsewhere.birth parity, event history analysis, fertility, gender, labor market, short-term employment, unemployment

Educational Homogamy: Preferences or Opportunities?

Individuals match on length and type of education. We investigate whether the systematic relationship between educations of partners is explained by opportunities (e.g. low search frictions) or preferences (e.g. complementarities in household production or portfolio optimization). We find that half of the systematic sorting on education is due to low search frictions in marriage markets of the educational institutions. The other half is attributed to complementarities in household production, since income properties of the joint income process show no influence on partner selection.positive assortative matching on education; search frictions; hedging; complementarities in household production

Women's Labour Force Attachment in Europe: An Analytical Framework and Empirical Evidence for the Household

This paper has two major aims. First, it argues that for employment issues, economics and sociology do not carry out substitutional but complementary research. Interdisciplinary research on labour markets is strongly needed to fully understand the mechanism of labour markets. Second, it theoretically discusses the influence of the household on women's labour market behaviour and shows some evidence from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). The increased labour market participation of women in Europe has led to an intensive interdisciplinary research. The economic view of supply (construction of preferences) and demand (firm's rationales) shows that institutional systems, which are considered as exogenous, influence the labour market behaviour of individuals and households. These institutional systems which are the 'black boxes' in the economic view, constitute the main focus of the sociological approach to work. This paper shows that a theoretical connection of labour economics and sociology within an institutional approach, coupled with a gender order perspective, provides a useful framework of analysis. Within this framework, I distinguish between the individual actors of a labour market - namely households, firms and the state - and analyse the interdependencies between them. Political measures influence not only households (e. g. education, care activities) but also firms (e. g. organisation of production). The interaction of these three spheres determines the quantity and quality of the labour market participation of women. The empirical part of this paper tests some of the determinants of the labour market behaviour of women with the help of the data of the European Community Household Panel. It is argued that the determinants of women’s labour market behaviour are interrelated with a whole set of social and economic institutions which form a specific employment system.

Do preceding questions influence the reporting of childbearing intentions in social surveys?

For demographers fertility intentions are a long standing source of both interest and scepticism. Scepticism has been expressed because fertility intentions regularly fail to precisely predict fertility and because they are liable to change across the life course. Here we demonstrate an additional consideration: simply changing the questions that precede fertility intentions questions can have a significant influence on responses. We illustrate this risk using a series of randomised experiments with different preceding questions; first, on mortality and risk in two convenience samples of UK undergraduate students. Secondly, we will present provisional results from a ground-breaking longitudinal experiment where the manipulated preceding questions are on close family and friends. As far as we are aware this later study is the first time that question ordering experiment looking at fertility intentions has been embedded in a representative survey, and the first longitudinal measurement of preceding-question effects using the same individuals