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Income and childbearing decisions: evidence from Italy

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  • Rondinelli, Concetta
  • Aassve, Arnstein
  • C. Billari, Francesco
Abstract
During the early 1990s, Italy has been one of the first countries to reach lowest-low fertility, i.e. below 1.3 children per woman. In this paper we focus on the period during which such fertility levels arose in order to assess the impact of income on fertility decisions. So far, analyses have suffered from the lack of appropriate data; we create a new data set making use of two different surveys from Bank of Italy (SHIW) and ISTAT (Labor Force Survey) and we apply discrete-time duration models. For first births, we find evidence of non-proportional hazards and of some 'recuperation' effect: women with high predicted wages tend to delay the first birth, subsequently recuperating. For second and third births, instead, the availability of a good child-care system seems to play a key role and income exhibits small intensity. In a final section, we explore the possible effect on fertility of an increase in financial support for poorer families that took place in 1999.

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  • Rondinelli, Concetta & Aassve, Arnstein & C. Billari, Francesco, 2006. "Income and childbearing decisions: evidence from Italy," ISER Working Paper Series 2006-06, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2006-06
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    Cited by:

    1. Martin Klesment & Allan Puur & Leen Rahnu & Luule Sakkeus, 2014. "Varying association between education and second births in Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 31(27), pages 813-860.
    2. Gunnar Andersson & Michaela R. Kreyenfeld & Tatjana Mika, 2009. "Welfare state context, female earnings and childbearing," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2009-026, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    3. Laura Romeu Gordo, 2009. "Why Are Women Delaying Motherhood in Germany?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 57-75.
    4. Rondinelli, Concetta & Aassve, Arnstein & C. Billari, Francesco, 2006. "Socio-economic differences in postponement and recuperation of fertility in Italy: results from a multi-spell random effect model," ISER Working Paper Series 2006-46, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    5. Natálie Švarcová & Petr Švarc, 2009. "The Financial Impact of Government Policies on Families with Children in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia," Czech Economic Review, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, vol. 3(1), pages 048-068, March.
    6. Elisabetta Santarelli, 2011. "Economic resources and the first child in Italy: A focus on income and job stability," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 25(9), pages 311-336.
    7. Patrizia Giannantoni & Giuseppe Gabrielli, 2015. "Fertility Of Immigrant Women In Italy:Outcomes From Unconventional Data," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 69(2), pages 164-176, April-Jun.

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