Volume 28 - Article 31 | Pages 881–916  

Does his paycheck also matter?: The socioeconomic resources of co-residential partners and entry into parenthood in Finland

By Marika Jalovaara, Anneli Miettinen

Abstract

Background: Previous research on fertility has focused on women, and less attention has been paid to men and couples.

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine how the socioeconomic resources of cohabiting and married partners affect entry into parenthood in a relatively gender-egalitarian welfare society.

Methods: The study is based on Finnish register data and uses event-history analysis to predict first births from both partners’ socioeconomic characteristics.

Results: The results show that each partner being employed (as opposed to studying) and having a higher income seems to encourage entry into parenthood. As compared to employed couples, either partner being currently unemployed or having recent spells of unemployment had very weak effects, whereas either partner being economically inactive seems to discourage childbearing. Although the resources of male partners also have an effect, the female partner’s situation appears to be equally or even more influential. The effects of female partners’ characteristics are almost as great when male characteristics are controlled as when they are not, and women’s and men’s characteristics do not interact with each other. Moreover, with regard to income and educational attainment beyond age 30, for example, the woman’s resources have a stronger positive effect than the resources of the male partner.

Conclusions: Together with several previous studies from the Nordic countries, this study lends support to the idea that the influence of women’s and men’s economic resources on family formation are perhaps much more symmetrical than conventional theories suggest.

Comments: The significance of women's own resources, net of the male partner’s resources, suggests that previous studies have not overestimated their positive impact.

Author's Affiliation

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

A register-based account of period trends in union prevalence, entries, and exits by educational level for men and women in Finland
Volume 48 - Article 14

Homeownership after separation: A longitudinal analysis of Finnish register data
Volume 41 - Article 29

Social policies, separation, and second birth spacing in Western Europe
Volume 37 - Article 37

From never partnered to serial cohabitors: Union trajectories to childlessness
Volume 36 - Article 55

Are there gender differences in family trajectories by education in Finland?
Volume 33 - Article 44

Homogamy in socio-economic background and education, and the dissolution of cohabiting unions
Volume 30 - Article 65

Recent fertility patterns of Finnish women by union status: A descriptive account
Volume 28 - Article 14

Gender equality and fertility intentions revisited: Evidence from Finland
Volume 24 - Article 20

A review of the antecedents of union dissolution
Volume 23 - Article 10

Socioeconomic differentials in divorce risk by duration of marriage
Volume 7 - Article 16

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

The big decline: Lowest-low fertility in Uruguay (2016–2021)
Volume 50 - Article 16    | Keywords: adolescent fertility, birth order, fertility, Latin America, ultra-low fertility, Uruguay

Cohort fertility of immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union
Volume 50 - Article 13    | Keywords: age at first birth, assimilation, cohort analysis, fertility, immigration, parity, religiosity

Fertility decline, changes in age structure, and the potential for demographic dividends: A global analysis
Volume 50 - Article 9    | Keywords: age structure, demographic dividend, demographic transition, fertility, migration, population momentum, working-age population

Analyzing hyperstable population models
Volume 49 - Article 37    | Keywords: birth trajectory, cohort analysis, cyclical populations, dynamic population model, fertility, hyperstable, period

Ultra-Orthodox fertility and marriage in the United States: Evidence from the American Community Survey
Volume 49 - Article 29    | Keywords: age at first marriage, American Community Survey (ACS), fertility, Judaism, marriage, religion, total fertility rate (TFR), Ultra-Orthodox Judaism