Women’s income and childbearing in context

Abstract

The objective of this article is to examine the association between women's income and first birth risks in two fairly similar countries: Denmark and Finland. The benefit of comparing these two countries is that observed variation in fertility behaviour might be attributed to the few differences in context factors, with a special focus on detailed differences in family policies. The economic theory of fertility, as well as models about bargaining processes within the family, serve as a theoretical framework for explaining individual childbearing decisions within the specific context of each country. Discrete time multiple regressions are estimated to test the hypotheses on the data from the European Community Household Panel (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001). In Denmark, women's income has a positive effect on first birth risks, but the effect in Finland is insignificant. A second result is that Finnish women who earn more than their partner have lower first birth risks than those earning approximately the same.

Earnings and first birth probability among Norwegian men and women 1995-2010

“…The results show that the positive correlation between annual earnings and first birth probability strengthens more over time for women than for men. The results for women corroborates the findings from cross-country comparisons, showing that the correlation between earnings and fertility is more positive for women in contexts where motherhood is compatible with pursuing a career (Andersson, Kreyenfeld, and Mika 2014;Berninger 2013, see also Matysiak 2011. No previous study has addressed how context shapes the relationship between earnings and first birth probability for men.…”

“…Crosscountry comparisons indicate that in contexts with weak institutional support for families and/or gender traditional division of labour in the family, a conflict between employment and childbearing leads to a negative relationship between earnings and fertility for women. As the institutional support for families increase and/or the division of labour in the family becomes more gender equal, employment facilitates the transition to motherhood for women, and a positive correlation between female earnings and fertility emerges (Andersson, Kreyenfeld, and Mika 2014;Berninger 2013;Matysiak 2011). The fact that employment comes to facilitate the transition to motherhood is among the main explanations suggested for the shift to a positive correlation between human development and fertility found in macro-level analysis (Luci-Greulich and Thévenon 2014;Myrskylä, Kohler, and Billari 2009).…”

Socioeconomic resources and family formation among young Finnish adults

“…The positive associations of income or a stronger labour market attachment remained after adjusting for the other partner's characteristics. However, Berninger (2013), using relatively small samples, found that only the female partner's income mattered in the transition to first birth among partnered Danish women. In Sutela's study (2013), Finnish male and female employees with an employed partner demonstrated an increased likelihood of first birth compared to persons with a non-employed partner.…”

Fertility, employment and family policy

“…The effect of changes in family policies and labour market outcomes may differ by birth-order. For example, quasi-experimental studies often find differential effect sizes for first and subsequent births (Bergsvik, Fauske and Hart, 2020 [37]). For example, prior to their first birth, mothers tend to underestimate the (employment) costs of parenthood (Kuziemko et al, 2020[59]).…”

“…While benefits, allowances and financial supports to families can theoretically raise fertility by reducing the (opportunity-) costs of childbirth, the actual effect is not necessarily clear as having more resources could lead parents to increased spending, thereby reducing the demand for children (Bergsvik, Fauske and Hart, 2020[37]). Indeed, most research indicates that cash transfers for families with children have only moderately positive effects on fertility (Skirbekk, 2022[38]; Bergsvik, Fauske and Hart, 2020 [37]).…”