The Gender-Specific Effects of Partners’ Socio-Economic Resources on Fertility

Anna Matysiak, Wittgenstein Centre (IIASA, VID/ÖAW, WU)
Natalie Nitsche, Vienna Institute of Demography

This paper analyses how partners’ relative resources affect fertility behavior and whether these effects vary across institutional and cultural settings. To this end we perform a comparative study of EU member states which differ in institutional support for working parents as well as in the social norms on division of labor between women and men. We model the probability of childbirth against various measures of partners’ relative resources using the EU-SILC data (Community Statistics on Income and Living Conditions). We expect to find that women’s economic resources have a negative and men’s economic resources a positive effect on birth probabilities. However, we also expect the effect of individual resources to be moderated by the resources of the partner. Finally, the anticipated effects should be weaker in countries where the support for working parents is more generous and social acceptance of mothers’ employment and fathers’ involvement in childcare is stronger.