Volume 36 - Article 23 | Pages 691–728  

Education, labour, and the demographic consequences of birth postponement in Europe

By Hippolyte d'Albis, Angela Greulich, Grégory Ponthière

Abstract

Background: This article questions the demographic consequences of birth postponement in Europe.

Objective: Starting from the fact that there is no obvious link between the timing of first births and fertility levels in Europe, we find that under certain circumstances, birth postponement potentially facilitates rather than impedes starting a family.

Methods: We apply a synthetic cohort approach and distinguish between different socioeconomic determinants of the timing of first births by using the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Data is compiled specifically to reduce endogeneity and to eliminate structure effects.

Results: We find that the probability of becoming a mother is higher for women who postpone first childbirth due to education and career investment than for women who postpone due to unrealized labour market integration.

Conclusions: Educated and economically active women certainly postpone first childbirth in comparison to women who are less educated and who are not working, but they end up with a higher probability of starting a family.

Contribution: The article contributes to the academic discussion of circumstances that may lead to birth postponement resulting in higher fertility for younger cohorts in European countries.

Author's Affiliation

• Hippolyte d'Albis - Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), France EMAIL
• Angela Greulich - Sciences Po, France EMAIL
• Grégory Ponthière - École d'économie de Paris, France EMAIL

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Measuring the educational gradient of period fertility in 28 European countries: A new approach based on parity-specific fertility estimates
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Influenza mortality in French regions after the Hong Kong flu pandemic
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The quality of periodic fertility measures in EU-SILC
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Multiple imputation for demographic hazard models with left-censored predictor variables: Application to employment duration and fertility in the EU-SILC
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Age groups and the measure of population aging
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