Volume 55 - Article 19 | Pages 573–622
Local house prices and first births in Belgium: Subgroup variation by education and migration background
By Jonas Wood, Julie Maes
References
Aksoy, C.G. (2016). Short-term effects of house prices on birth rates. EBRD Working Paper 192.
Alderotti, G., Vignoli, D., Baccini, M., and Matysiak, A. (2021). Employment instability and fertility in Europe: A meta-analysis. Demography 58(3): 871–900.
Allison, P. (2009). Fixed effects regression models. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences).
Atalay, K., Li, A., and Whelan, S. (2021). Housing wealth, fertility intentions and fertility. Journal of Housing Economics 54: 101787.
Azevedo, A., Módenes, J.A., and López-Colás, J. (2019). Changes in the relationship between first-child birth and homeownership: New evidence from Spain 2000–2008. In: Heitkamp, T., Bargelli, E., Simón-Moreno, H., and Vázquez-Varela, C. (eds.). Southern European housing. Pisa: Pisa University Press: 109–134.
Baert, S. (2018). Hiring discrimination: An overview of (almost) all correspondence experiments since 2005. In: Gaddis, S. (ed.). Audit studies: Behind the scenes with theory, method, and nuance. Cham: Springer: 63–77.
Bayrakdar, S. and Coulter, R. (2018). Parents, local house prices, and leaving home in Britain. Population, Space and Place 24: e2087.
Bayrakdar, S., Coulter, R., Lersch, P., and Vidal, S. (2019). Family formation, parental background and young adults’ first entry into homeownership in Britain and Germany. Housing Studies 34(6): 974–996.
Billari, F.C. (2015). Integrating macro- and micro-level approaches in the explanation of population change. Population Studies 69: S11–S20.
Blossfeld, H.P., Klijzing, E., Mills, M., and Kurz, K. (2005). Globalization, uncertainty and youth in society. Oxford: Routledge.
Bongaarts, J. and Feeney, G. (1998). On the quantum and tempo of fertility. Population and Development Review 24(2): 271–291.
Brauner-Otto, S.R. (2023). Housing and fertility: A macro-level, multi-country investigation, 1993–2017. Housing Studies 38(4): 569–596.
Chudnovskaya, M. (2019). Housing context and childbearing in Sweden: A cohort study. Housing Studies 34(3): 469–488.
Clark, J. and Ferrer, A. (2019). The effect of house prices on fertility: Evidence from Canada. Economics 13.
Clark, W.A.V. (2012). Do women delay family formation in expensive housing markets? Demographic Research 27(1): 1–24.
Daysal, N.M., Lovenheim, M., Siersbæk, N., and Wasser, D.N. (2021). Home prices, fertility, and early-life health outcomes. Journal of Public Economics 198: 104366.
De Decker, P. and Dewilde, C. (2010). Home-ownership and asset-based welfare: The case of Belgium. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 25: 243–262.
Dettling, L.J. and Kearney, M.S. (2014). House prices and birth rates: The impact of the real estate market on the decision to have a baby. Journal of Public Economics 110: 82–100.
Feijten, P. and Mulder, C.H. (2002). The timing of household events and housing events in the Netherlands: A longitudinal perspective. Housing Studies 17(5): 773–792.
Florida, R., Mellander, C., and King, K. (2021). Housing costs, self-employment, and fertility. Population, Space and Place 27(3): 2413.
Friedman, D., Hechter, M., and Kanazawa, S. (1994). A theory of the value of children. Demography 31(3): 375–401.
Henman, P. and Unit, S.P. (2007). Updated costs of children using Australian budget standards. Costs of children: Research commissioned by the Ministerial Taskforce on Child Support. Canberra: Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.
Kreyenfeld, M. and Andersson, G. (2014). Socioeconomic differences in the unemployment and fertility nexus: Evidence from Denmark and Germany. Advances in Life Course Research 21: 59–73.
Kulu, H. and Steele, F. (2013). Interrelationships between childbearing and housing transitions in the family life course. Demography 50(5): 1687–1714.
Kulu, H. and Vikat, A. (2007). Fertility differences by housing type: The effect of housing conditions or of selective moves? Demographic Research 17(26): 775–802.
Lauster, N.T. (2010). Housing and the proper performance of American motherhood, 1940–2005. Housing Studies 25(4): 543–557.
Lersch, P.M. and Dewilde, C. (2015). Employment insecurity and first-time homeownership: Evidence from twenty-two European countries. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 47(3): 607–624.
Li, A. (2018). Fertility and housing market: Australian evidence. Sydney: University of Sydney.
Lino, M., Kuczynski, K., Rodriguez, N., and Schap, T.R. (2017). Expenditures on children by families 2015. Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, CNPP Reports.
Lovenheim, M.F. and Mumford, K.J. (2013). Do family wealth shocks affect fertility choices? Evidence from the housing market. The Review of Economics and Statistics 95(2): 464–475.
Maes, J., Wood, J., and Neels, K. (2019). Early labour market trajectories of intermediate and second generation Turkish and Maghreb women in Belgium. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 61: 65–78.
Marynissen, L., Neels, K., and Wood, J. (2025). The association between education and entry into parenthood across origin groups and migrant generations in Belgium: A model-based synthetic life table approach. Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2025: 421–447.
Mulder, C.H. and Billari, F.C. (2010). Homeownership regimes and low fertility. Housing Studies 25(4): 527–541.
Mulder, C.H. and Lauster, N.T. (2010). Housing and family: An introduction. Housing Studies 25(4): 433–440.
Mulder, C.H. and Wagner, M. (2001). The connections between family formation and first-time home ownership in the context of West Germany and the Netherlands. European Journal of Population / Revue européenne de Démographie 17: 137–164.
Neels, K., Marynissen, L., and Wood, J. (2024). Economic cycles and entry into parenthood: Is the association changing and does it affect macro-level trends? micro-level hazard and simulation models of Belgian fertility trends, 1960–2010. European Journal of Population 40: 13.
Neels, K., Murphy, M., Ni Bhrolchain, M., and Beaujouan, É (2017). Rising educational participation and the trend to later childbearing. Population and Development Review 43(4): 667–693.
Neels, K., Theunynck, Z., and Wood, J. (2012). Economic recession and first births in Europe: Recession-induced postponement and recuperation of fertility in 14 European countries between 1970 and 2005. International Journal of Public Health 58: 43–55.
Ni Bhrolchain, M. and Beaujouan, E. (2012). Fertility postponement is largely due to rising educational enrolment. Population Studies 66(3): 311–327.
OECD (2024). Indicator HC1.1. Housing-related expenditure of households [electronic resource].
OECD (2024). OECD Database: Educational attainment and labour-force status.
Öst, C.E. (2012). Housing and children: simultaneous decisions? A cohort study of young adults’ housing and family formation decision. Journal of Population Economics 25: 349–366.
Simon, C.J. and Tamura, R. (2009). Do higher rents discourage fertility? Evidence from US cities, 1940–2000. Regional Science and Urban Economics 39: 33–42.
Sobotka, T., Skirbekk, V., and Philipov, D. (2011). Economic recession and fertility in the developed world. Population and Development Review 37(2): 267–306.
Ström, S. (2010). Housing and first births in Sweden, 1972–2005. Housing Studies 25(4): 509–526.
Tocchioni, V., Berrington, A., Vignoli, D., and Vitali, A. (2021). The changing association between homeownership and the transition to parenthood. Demography 58(5): 1843–1865.
UNIA and FOD WASO (2017). Socio-economische monitoring – Arbeidsmarkt en Origine. Brussels: Federale Overheidsdienst Werkgelegenheid, Arbeid en Sociaal Overleg, UNIA.
Van Gompel, J. (2018). Property market chief source of inequality in Belgium.
van Wijk, D. (2024). House prices and fertility: Can the Dutch housing crisis explain the post-2010 fertility decline? Population, Space and Place 30(7): 2787.
Verstraete, J. and Verhaeghe, P.P. (2020). Ethnic discrimination upon request? Real estate agents’ strategies for discriminatory questions of clients. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 35: 703–721.
Vidal, S., Huinink, J., and Feldhaus, M. (2017). Fertility intentions and residential relocations. Demography 54(4): 1305–1330.
Vignoli, D., Rinesi, F., and Mussino, E. (2013). A home to plan the first child? Fertility intentions and housing conditions in Italy. Population, Space and Place 19(1): 60–71.
Wood, J., Berg, L., and Neels, K. (2017). Household division of labour and family formation in the Moroccan First and Second Generations at the turn of the 21st Century. In: Timmerman, C., Fadil, N., Goddeeris, I., Clycq, N., and Ettourki, K. (eds.). Moroccan migration in Belgium. More than 50 years of settlement. Leuven: Leuven University Press: 125–146.
Wood, J., Marynissen, L., Nisen, J., Fallesen, P., Neels, K., Trimarchi, A., Dommermuth, L., Gaalen, R., Kolk, M., and Martikainen, P. (2025). Regional differentiation in women’s educational gradients in fertility around the turn of the century: Urban-rural differences in northern and western Europe. Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2025: 489–514.
Wood, J. and Neels, K. (2017). First a job, then a child? Subgroup variation in women’s employment-fertility link. Advances in Life Course Research 33: 38–52.
Wood, J. and Neels, K. (2019). Local childcare availability and dual-earner fertility: Variation in childcare coverage and birth hazards over place and time. European Journal of Population 35: 913–937.
Wood, J., Neels, K., and Kil, T. (2014). The educational gradient of childlessness and cohort parity progression in 14 low fertility countries. Demographic Research 31(46): 1365–1416.
Wood, J., Neels, K., and Marynissen, L. (2025). Economic cycles and the transition to motherhood: Differentiation between natives without a migration background and children of immigrants. Advances in Life Course Research 67: 100710.
Wood, J., Vergauwen, J., and Neels, K. (2015). Economic conditions and variation in first birth hazards in 22 European countries between 1970 and 2005. In: Matthijs, K., Neels, K., Timmerman, C., Haers, J., and Mels, S. (eds.). Population change in Europe, the Middle-East and North Africa. Beyond the Demographic Divide. Farnham England, Burlington Vermont: Ashgate.
Yi, J. and Zhang, J. (2010). The effect of house price on fertility: Evidence from Hong Kong. Economic Inquiry 48(3): 635–650.
Zavisca, J.R. (2012). Housing the New Russia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Zavisca, J.R. and Gerber, T.P. (2016). The socioeconomic, demographic, and political effects of housing in comparative perspective. Annual Review of Sociology 42: 347–367.