Download full text
(1.772Mb)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-79540-5
Exports for your reference manager
Welfare regime patterns in the social class-fertility relationship: Second births in Austria, France, Norway, and the United Kingdom
[journal article]
Abstract This paper develops a theoretical framework to analyze the relationship between social class and fertility. The framework borrows elements from social class analysis, institutional perspectives on the labor market and fertility, and welfare and gender regime theories. I hypothesize that individuals’... view more
This paper develops a theoretical framework to analyze the relationship between social class and fertility. The framework borrows elements from social class analysis, institutional perspectives on the labor market and fertility, and welfare and gender regime theories. I hypothesize that individuals’ social class positions impinge on their economic security, employment–parenthood role compatibility, and gender relations, which are key variables in the explanation of fertility in contemporary postindustrial societies. Different combinations of these variables for each social class and country lead to class-specific fertility patterns. I use Austrian, French, Norwegian, and British samples from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, for the years 2004-2015, and discrete-time event-history analysis techniques to analyze second birth probabilities. A simultaneous equations approach is adopted to account for unobserved heterogeneity. The results document substantial differentials between social classes and distinct social class patterns for each country, consistently with the theoretical expectations. In Norway and France, overall high levels of second birth probabilities are found that follow a positive social ordering. In the United Kingdom and Austria, a U-shaped relationship between class and second birth probabilities prevails. Once unobserved heterogeneity is accounted for in the analyses, social class shows a positive effect on fertility in the four countries. The results show that social class is not only key to understanding intracountry differentials in fertility but is also useful for understanding the functioning of the welfare regime and its relationship to overall levels of fertility.... view less
Keywords
gender relations; birth trend; fertility; Austria; France; birth; security; economic situation; Norway; Great Britain; social inequality; social class
Classification
Family Sociology, Sociology of Sexual Behavior
General Sociology, Basic Research, General Concepts and History of Sociology, Sociological Theories
Free Keywords
Welfare regime; Economic security; European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC)
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 1-16
Journal
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility (2021) 73
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2021.100611
ISSN
0276-5624
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed
Licence
Creative Commons - Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0