Family policies in the context of low fertility and social structure

Fent, Thomas; Diaz, Belinda Aparicio; Prskawetz, Alexia

doi:10.4054/demres.2013.29.37

Cited by 35 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Of particular interest is the reproduction of universal properties of election results with many candidates: The curves of how many candidates got n votes each are similar to each other [Castellano 2009]. Car traffice [Chowdhury et al [2000], economic markets [Bouchaud andPotters 2010, Bonabeau 2002 [Fent et al 2011], insurgent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan [Johnson et al 1944], ... are other applications. For example, non-physicists [Holman et al 2011] have acknowledged that physicists Serva and Petroni (2008) may have been the first to use Levinstein distances to calculate the ages of language groups.…”

Section: Sociophysics and Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In all these networks, the average number of bonds needed to connect two randomly selected sites increases logarithmically with the number of sites in the network, whereas for d-dimensional lattices this average number of bonds increases stronger with a power law, exponent 1/d. Having simulated one network, one can also study connected sets of networks or other social networks [Watts, Dodds, Newman 2002], or demography on them [Fent et al 2011].…”

Section: Sociophysics and Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Statistical Physics for Humanists: A Tutorial

Stauffer¹

2014

All About Science

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The image of physics is connected with simple "mechanical" deterministic events: that an apple always falls down, that force equals mass times acceleleration. Indeed, applications of such concept to social or historical problems go back two centuries (population growth and stabilisation, by Malthus and by Verhulst) and use "differential equations", as recently revierwed by Vitanov and Ausloos [2011]. However, since even today's computers cannot follow the motion of all air molecules within one cubic centimeter, the probabilistic approach has become fashionable since Ludwig Boltzmann invented Statistical Physics in the 19th century. Computer simulations in Statistical Physics deal with single particles, a method called agent-based modelling in fields which adopted it later. Particularly simple are binary models where each particle has only two choices, called spin up and spin down by physicists, bit zero and bit one by computer scientists, and voters for the Republicans or for the Democrats in American politics (where one human is simulated as one particle). Neighbouring particles may influence each other, and the Ising model of 1925 is the best-studied example of such models. This text will explain to the reader how to program the Ising model on a square lattice (in Fortran language); starting from there the readers can build their own computer programs. Some applications of Statistical Physics outside the natural sciences will be listed.

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Section: Sociophysics and Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sociophysics and Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Statistical Physics for Humanists: A Tutorial

Stauffer¹

2014

All About Science

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“…The TPB and utility theory have both been used extensively in agent-based models of demographic content; for an overview, see Klabunde and Willekens 2016. Heuristic decision rules based on social influence are also very popular when modelling fertility decisions and especially mating decisions (Billari et al 2007;Fent et al 2013), where search theory plays an important role (Todd et al 2005;Hills and Todd 2008). Decisions are not only made at the individual level, but also at the household level (e.g., Walsh et al 2013), thus requiring that the different organizational levels are suitably reflected in the modelling language.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling and simulating decision processes of linked lives: An approach based on concurrent processes and stochastic race

et al. 2017

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Individuals' decision processes play a central role in understanding modern migration phenomena and other demographic processes. Their integration into agent-based computational demography depends largely on suitable support by a modelling language. We are developing the Modelling Language for Linked Lives (ML3) to describe the diverse decision processes of linked lives succinctly in continuous time. The context of individuals is modelled by networks the individual is part of, such as family ties and other social networks. Central concepts, such as behaviour conditional on agent attributes, age-dependent behaviour, and stochastic waiting times, are tightly integrated in the language. Thereby, alternative decisions are modelled by concurrent processes that compete by stochastic race. Using a migration model, we demonstrate how this allows for compact description of complex decisions, here based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour. We describe the challenges for the simulation algorithm posed by stochastic race between multiple concurrent complex decisions.

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“…Previous empirical literature on the Italian fertility puzzle has focused on the role of social and cultural factors in childbearing decisions (Micheli 2000;Kertzer et al 2008;Fent et al 2011), and on institutional and policy differences in comparison with Nordic countries -where more generous protection systems have been implemented to reconcile motherhood with work, and childcare services and part-time jobs have become increasingly available (Engelhardt and Prskawetz 2004;Del Boca and Sauer 2009). In this paper we argue that, in addition to these factors, and to women's decisions about investments in human capital and participation in the labour market, childbearing crucially depends on the economic conditions of the household.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic Insecurity and Fertility Intentions: The Case of Italy

2013

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractWe aim to provide an explanation for the combination of the relatively low female participation rates and lowest-low fertility levels in Italy. Starting from the assumption that childbearing decisions also depend on uncertainty about future employment, income, and wealth, we empirically assess how fertility intentions are affected by: 1) the deprivation of a quality job, which may severely compromise the employability of workers and is likely to provoke feelings of insecurity about future employment; 2) conditions of economic disadvantage in terms of household income and wealth, which may imply insufficient means to deal with potential adverse future events, thereby generating in the household feelings of anxiety and economic insecurity. We show that the instability of women's work status (i.e. the holding of occasional and precarious employment positions) significantly discourages the decision to have a first child. Low levels of household wealth significantly and positively influence the decision to postpone, or even decide against, having a first child. The chances of further childbirth are significantly and negatively influenced by household income insecurity.JEL Codes: C25, J13.

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Family policies in the context of low fertility and social structure

Cited by 35 publications

References 41 publications

Statistical Physics for Humanists: A Tutorial

Statistical Physics for Humanists: A Tutorial

Modelling and simulating decision processes of linked lives: An approach based on concurrent processes and stochastic race

Economic Insecurity and Fertility Intentions: The Case of Italy

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