Incomplete reporting of men’s fertility in the united states and britain: A research note

Abstract

We evaluate men's retrospective fertility histories from the British Household Panel Survey and the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Further, we analyze the PSID men's panel-updated fertility histories for their possible superiority over retrospective collection. One third to one half of men's nonmarital births and births within previous marriages are missed in estimates from retrospective histories. Differential survey underrepresentation of previously married men compared with previously married women accounts for a substantial proportion of the deficits in previous-marriage fertility. More recent retrospective histories and panel-updated fertility histories improve reporting completeness, primarily by reducing the proportion of marital births from unions that are no longer intact at the survey date.

Male fertility in Greece

“…As repeatedly mentioned by previous works (Joyner et al 2012;Zhang 2011;Greene and Biddlecom 2000;Rendall, et al 1999;Poston and Chang 2005), undercount is one major issue to deal with when focusing on male-related birth data. The number of births tabulated by father's information falls behind the total number of births annually registered.…”

“…Though biological reasons are put to the fore, methodological difficulties and data quality issues are equally often evoked to explain why men have for so long been left out of fertility analysis. Birth-registration certificates do not always include data on both parents, even in more developed countries (Rendall et al 1999); out-of-wedlock birth statistics usually omit information about fathers (Greene and Biddlecom 2000). Birth data on women are considered to be not only easier to collect but also more accurate, women being more directly involved in the whole childbearing procedure.…”

Age-specific fertility by educational level in the Finnish male cohort born 1940‒1950

“…Relatively little is known about how men's educational level relates to higher-order parity transitions (Toulemon 2000;Oláh 2003;Kravdal 2007;Lappegård and Rønsen 2013), but the transition to parenthood is likely to dominate the educational gradient in fertility (Fieder and Huber 2007). The discrepancies in the studies may reflect differences in data quality and fertility measurements (Rendall et al 1999;Juby and Le Bourdais 1999), or true contextual differences between countries.…”

Childlessness in Europe: Reconstructing Long-Term Trends Among Women Born in 1900–1972

“…Collecting data on childlessness among men is even more challenging, partly because men tend to underreport their children from previous marriages and partnerships (Rendall et al 1999), and partly because they have a longer reproductive period. Thus, the only sources of data on childlessness among men are often smaller scale surveys, such as the Fertility and Family Surveys (FFS) conducted in the 1990s and the Generation and Gender Surveys (GGS) conducted since the early 2000s (e.g., Miettinen et al 2015).…”