Can child care policy encourage employment and fertility? : evidence from a structural model
Titelübersetzung:Kann die Kinderfürsorgepolitik Beschäftigung und Fertilität fördern?
Autor/in:
Haan, Peter; Wrohlich, Katharina
Quelle: Max-Planck-Institut für demografische Forschung; Rostock (MPIDR Working Paper, 2009-025), 2009. 30 S.
Inhalt: "In this paper we develop a structural model of female employment and fertility which accounts for intertemporal feedback effects between the two outcomes. We identify the effect of financial incentives on the employment and fertility decision by exploiting variation in the tax and transfer system which differs by employment state and number of children. To this end we simulate in detail the effects of the tax and transfer system including child care costs. The model provides estimates of structural preferences of women which can be used to study the effect of various policy reforms. In particular, we show that increasing child care subsidies conditional on employment increases labor supply of all women as well as fertility of the childless and highly educated women." (author's abstract)
Welfare state context, female earnings and childbearing
Titelübersetzung:Wohlfahrtsstaat, Frauenlöhne und Schwangerschaft
Autor/in:
Andersson, Gunnar; Kreyenfeld, Michaela; Mika, Tatjana
Quelle: Max-Planck-Institut für demografische Forschung; Rostock (MPIDR Working Paper, 2009-026), 2009. 34 S.
Inhalt: "This paper investigates the role of female earnings in childbearing decisions in two very different European contexts. By applying event history techniques to German and Danish register data during 1981-2001, we demonstrate how female earnings relate to first, second and third birth rates. Our study shows that female earnings are rather positively associated with fertility in Denmark, while the relationship is the opposite in West Germany. We interpret our findings based on our observation that Danish social policies tend to encourage Danish women to become established in the labor market before having children, while German policies during the 1980s and 1990s were not designed to encourage maternal employment." (author's abstract)
Germany: family diversity with low actual and desired fertility
Titelübersetzung:Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Familienvielfalt mit niedriger aktueller und erwünschter Fruchtbarkeit
Autor/in:
Dorbritz, Jürgen
Quelle: Demographic Research, Vol. 19 (2008) , S. 557-598
Inhalt: "Germany is a low-fertility country with a rapidly ageing population, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. There are several reasons for this trend. Germany is among the countries with the highest rates of childlessness in the world, and childlessness has become widely accepted. This is illustrated by changes in living arrangements. A broad range of living arrangements has been added to the basic model of marriage with children; namely, single living, non-marital cohabitation, lone parenthood, patchwork families and living apart together. A culture of individualism has spread in Germany which forms the basis for widespread decisions against family formation. The desired number of children has become low and family policy is considered to be a failure in terms of its influence on fertility. German family policy has had a traditional orientation centred on monetary support to families and on the promotion of the male breadwinner model. Women have been largely forced to choose between family and work, and leave the labour market when a child is born. The still prevailing concept of family policy does not help to reduce the pressure to choose between work and family life, and thus makes it easier to decide not to have children, especially for highly educated women. A change in family policy is needed which will enable couples to choose between the breadwinner-housewife and the reconciliation model. Gradually, this change is starting to take place." (author's abstract)