Child Survival and the Fertility of Refugees in Rwanda after the Genocide

In the 1960s and 1990s, internal strife in Rwanda has caused a mass flow of refugees into neighbouring countries. This paper explores the cumulated fertility of Rwandan refugee women and the survival of their children. To this end, we use a national survey covering 6420 former refugee and non-refugee households conducted between 1999 and 2001. The findings support old-age security theories of reproductive behaviour: refugee women had higher fertility but their children had lower survival chances. Newborn girls suffered more than boys, suggesting that the usual sex differential in child survival observed in most populations changes under extreme living conditions.

The decline of illegitimacy and the control of marital fertility during the demographic transition: testing the innovation-diffusion hypothesis using cohort fertility data from a Belgian town, 1850-1910

'Eines der Hauptargumente, das in der Literatur zur Unterstützung der Ansicht vorgebracht wird, dass die europäische Fertilitätstransition das Ergebnis der Verbreitung einer Innovation, Kontrazeption genannt, war, ist, dass die uneheliche Fertilität gleichzeitig mit der ehelichen sank. Tatsächlich weist der parallele Rückgang der Illegitimität und der ehelichen Fertilität im letzten Abschnitt des 19. Jahrhunderts darauf hin, dass die Individuen in Europa neue Formen kontrazeptiven Verhaltens anwandten, die vorher abwesend oder sogar undenkbar waren. Das Ziel dieses Beitrags ist, eine Implikation des Arguments zu überprüfen: Wenn die Diffusionshypothese korrekt ist, würde man erwarten, dass Frauen, die vor der Ehe Kinder bekamen, wahrscheinlich weniger ihre Fruchtbarkeit durch kinderzahlabhängigen Geburtenstopp innerhalb der Ehe kontrollierten als vergleichbare Frauen ohne voreheliche Geburten. Diese Hypothese wird mit einem logistischen Regressionsmodell zum 'Stopping'-Verhalten untersucht, für das Daten dreier Geburtskohorten aus der belgischen Stadt Leuven zwischen 1850 und 1910 verwendet werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass zumindest in Leuven der Rückgang der Illegitimität zwar teilweise durch die Diffusion eines innovativen kontrazeptiven Verhaltens erklärt werden kann. Mehr als dass sie die diffusionistische Interpretation unterstützen, sprechen die Ergebnisse aber für das 'Courtship'-Modell vorehelicher Schwangerschaften und Geburten. Sie weisen auch darauf hin, dass während der Anfangsphase der Fertilitätstransition uneheliche Geburten bei manchen Personen Ausdruck einer liberalen Einstellung waren. Eine solche Haltung einer zur Illegitimät neigenden Subkultur kann ebenfalls positiv mit einem frühen 'Stopping'-Verhalten verbunden gewesen sein.' (Autorenreferat)'One of the major arguments made in the literature in support of the view that the European fertility transition was the result of the spread of an innovation called contraception, is that illegitimate fertility fell together with marital fertility. Indeed, the parallel decline of both illegitimacy and marital fertility in the final part of the nineteenth century suggests that individuals in Europe were applying new forms of contraceptive behaviour that were previously not done or even unthinkable. The aim of this contribution in to investigate one implication of the argument: if the diffusion hypothesis is correct, one would expect that women who got children before marriage would be less likely to control their fertility by means of parity-dependent stopping behaviour within marriage than comparable women without premarital births. This hypothesis is investigated with a logistic regression model of stopping behaviour using data from three birth cohorts living in the Belgian town of Leuven between 1850 and 1910. The results indicate that, at least in Leuven, the decline of illegitimacy can at most only partly be explained by the diffusion of innovative contraceptive behaviour. More than backing up the diffusionist interpretation, the findings lend particular support to the courtship model of premarital pregnancies and births. The findings also suggest that, during the initial stage of the fertility transition, non-marital childbearing may have reflected a liberal attitude towards reproduction for some. In turn, this liberal attitude in a 'bastardy-prone sub society' may also have been positively associated with early stopping behaviour.' (author's abstract

Second birth rates across Europe: interactions between women’s level of education and child care enrolment

Fertility differences in Europe are to a large extent due to parity progression after the first child. We therefore use data from the third round of the European Social Survey to investigate second-birth rates in 23 countries. Focusing on the role of education level and child care availability, we argue that child care provision is an important determinant of the opportunity cost of parity progression, particularly for highly educated women. We find that in countries where the highly educated have lower second birth rates than the less educated, total fertility tends to be low, and vice versa. In addition, the effect of the timing of the first child appears to be mediated by education level and child care availability: in countries where large proportions of young children attend formal child care, the more highly educated exhibit much higher second-birth rates, while child care availability does not affect parity progression for the less educated.

Grandparent-grandchild relationships and grandchildren's well-being after parental divorce in Flanders, Belgium: Does lineage matter?

Grandparents can play a supportive role when parents are divorced, but we know little about how important they actually are for the well-being of grandchildren. Existing studies do not distinguish between grandparental lineages. But a parental divorce usually has different consequences for relationships with grandparents on each side of the family, especially contacts with paternal grandparents getting hampered. And evolutionary perspectives suggest that maternal grandparents are more beneficial to grandchildren's well-being than paternal grandparents. Using a sample of grandchildren with divorced parents from the study 'Divorce in Flanders', we study whether the quality of relationships with maternal and paternal grandparents associate with grandchildren’s subjective well-being. Our results indicate that, although relationships with maternal grandparents tend to be closer than those with paternal grandparents, the strength of relationships with maternal as well as paternal grandparents is positively associated with the well-being of grandchildren with divorced parents. This suggests that not only maternal grandparents, but also grandparents on the father’s side of the family may play a beneficial role for their grandchildren in the often difficult times after a parental divorce.Wenn Eltern geschieden sind, können Großeltern für ihre Enkelkinder eine wichtige, unterstützende Rolle haben. Wenig ist jedoch bekannt über die Bedeutung dieser intergenerationellen Beziehungen für das Wohlbefinden der Enkelkinder. Bestehende Studien differenzieren nicht nach Abstammungslinie, obwohl zu erwarten ist, dass eine elterliche Scheidung unterschiedliche Folgen für die Beziehungen zu den Großeltern mütterlicherseits und väterlicherseits hat. Häufig erschwert eine Scheidung insbesondere den Kontakt zu den Großeltern väterlicherseits. Aus evolutionärer Sicht sollten Großeltern mütterlicherseits für das Wohlbefinden der Enkelkinder von größerer Bedeutung sein als Großeltern väterlicherseits. Anhand einer Stichprobe von Enkeln mit geschiedenen Eltern aus der Studie "Divorce in Flanders" wird untersucht, ob die Qualität der Beziehungen zu Großeltern mütterlicher und väterlicherseits mit dem subjektiven Wohlbefinden der Enkelkinder zusammenhängt. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass, obwohl die Beziehungen zu den Großeltern mütterlicherseits tendenziell enger sind als die zu den Großeltern väterlicherseits, eine enge Beziehung in beiden Abstammungslinien positiv mit dem kindlichen Wohlbefinden zusammenhängt. Dies deutet darauf hin, dass nicht nur die Großeltern mütterlicherseits, sondern auch die Großeltern väterlicherseits der Familie in den oft schwierigen Zeiten nach einer Scheidung der Eltern eine positive Rolle für ihre Enkelkinder spielen können

Women's Relative Resources and Couples' Gender Balance in Financial Decision-Making

We investigate how the relative education and earnings of husbands and wives are associated with self-reported decision-making within the family. Using European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions 2010 data for 27 European countries (n = 72,638), we find that women who earn more than their partner are more likely to report that they alone make the major financial and other important decisions. Men are more likely than women to be reported as financial decision makers if women contribute less than a quarter to joint earnings. However, in line with predictions based on traditional gender display, the association with relative earnings is not linear: among couples in which wives earn almost all of the income, we find that husbands are reported to have more say in financial decision-making than among couples in which both contribute a substantial part of the joint income. This non-linear pattern does not hold similarly for general decision-making. The discrepancy suggests that major financial issues, which were traditionally within the male realm, may be more susceptible to gender display than other family decisions

Family size and intergenerational social mobility during the fertility transition

It has been argued in sociology, economics, and evolutionary anthropology that family size limitation enhances the intergenerational upward mobility chances in modernized societies. If parents have a large flock, family resources get diluted and intergenerational mobility is bound to head downwards. Yet, the empirical record supporting this resource dilution hypothesis is limited. This article investigates the empirical association between family size limitation and intergenerational mobility in an urban, late nineteenth century population in Western Europe. It uses life course data from the Belgian city of Antwerp between 1846 and 1920. Findings are consistent with the resource dilution hypothesis: after controlling for confounding factors, people with many children were more likely to end up in the lower classes. Yet, family size limitation was effective as a defensive rather than an offensive strategy: it prevented the next generation from going down rather than helping them to climb up the social ladder. Also, family size appears to have been particularly relevant for the middle classes. Implications for demographic transition theory are discussed.Belgium, demographic transition, fertility, nineteenth century, parental investment, quantity-quality trade-off, resource dilution, social mobility

Family size and intergenerational social mobility during the fertility transition: evidence of resource dilution from the city of Antwerp in nineteenth century Belgium

It has been argued in sociology, economics, and evolutionary anthropology that family size limitation enhances the intergenerational upward mobility chances in modernized societies. If parents have a large flock, family resources get diluted and intergenerational mobility is bound to head downwards. Yet, the empirical record supporting this resource dilution hypothesis is limited. This article investigates the empirical association between family size limitation and intergenerational mobility in an urban, late nineteenth century population in Western Europe. It uses life course data from the Belgian city of Antwerp between 1846 and 1920. Findings are consistent with the resource dilution hypothesis: after controlling for confounding factors, people with many children were more likely to end up in the lower classes. Yet, family size limitation was effective as a defensive rather than an offensive strategy: it prevented the next generation from going down rather than helping them to climb up the social ladder. Also, family size appears to have been particularly relevant for the middle classes. Implications for demographic transition theory are discussed

The Mid-Twentieth Century Baby Boom and the Role of Social Influence. An Agent-Based Modelling Approach

Around the middle of the 20th century, most Western countries experienced a surge in birth rates, called the Baby Boom. This boom was unexpected at the time and the underlying mechanisms are still not entirely clear. It was characterized by high levels of inter- and intra-country variability in fertility, as some regions even experienced fertility decline during the Boom. In this paper, we suggest that social influence processes, propelling a shift towards two-child families, might have played an important role in the observed changes in fertility. Interactions in social networks can lead new types of childbearing behaviour to diffuse widely and thereby induce changes in fertility at the macro level. The emergence and diffusion of a two-child norm resulted in homogenization of fertility behaviour across regions. Overall, this led to a reduction of childlessness and thus an increase of fertility, as more people aspired to have at least two children. Yet, in those regions where larger family sizes were still common, the two-child norm contributed to a fertility decline. To explore the role of social influence with analytical rigor, we make use of agent-based computational modelling. We explicate the underlying behavioural assumptions in a formal model and assess their implications by submitting this model to computational simulation experiments. We use Belgium as a case study, since it exhibited large variability in fertility in a relatively small population during the Baby Boom years. We use census data to generate realistic starting conditions and to empirically validate the outcomes that our model generates. Our results show that the proposed mechanism could explain an important part of the variability of fertility trends during the Baby Boom era

Front-of-pack nutrition labelling schemes: a comprehensive review

This JRC Science for Policy report was produced in support of a Commission report on front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labelling. It provides a review of the scientific literature concerning FOP nutrition labelling and its effects on consumers, food business operators, and the single market. A major emphasis is placed on consumer attention, preferences, and understanding of different FOP schemes, as well as effects on food purchasing and implications for diet and health. The report also considers in how far producer efforts on food reformulation and innovation may be affected by the introduction of FOP nutrition labelling schemes, describes potential unintended consequences of introducing FOP nutrition labelling, and highlights knowledge gaps and directions for future research. An extensive, yet non-exhaustive overview of FOP schemes around the globe complements the literature review.JRC.F.1-Health in Societ