Volume 55 - Article 26 | Pages 847–908  

Educational pairings, partners’ economic resources, and second births in Austria

By Alessandra Trimarchi, Nadia Steiber, Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, Caroline Berghammer

Abstract

Background: Fertility research has highlighted the importance of analyzing both partners’ characteristics as determinants of fertility behavior, especially when examining the role of socioeconomic resources. However, due to a lack of adequate data, couple-level fertility research is relatively scarce.

Objective: We examined the role of educational pairings in different-sex couples for the occurrence and timing of second births in Austria, with a focus on the role of partners’ income.

Methods: We used register data from the period 2000–2021, and we applied a cure model to differentiate between factors associated with the occurrence and timing of second births.

Results: Homogamous couples with at least medium education are more likely to have a second child relative to their lower-educated counterparts. Medium-educated couples have longer birth intervals relative to both lower- and tertiary-educated couples. Results did not change when controlling for partners’ joint income. When we controlled for relative income in the medium–tertiary combination, hypogamous (the woman more educated than the man) couples were more likely to have a second child than their hypergamous (the man more educated than the woman) counterparts.

Conclusions: Findings highlight that the economic dimension of education, as captured by partners’ joint and relative income, is not sufficient to explain differences between educational pairings in the occurrence and timing of second births in Austria.

Contribution: We examined whether the association between couples’ educational pairing and the occurrence and timing of second births is accounted for by partners’ joint or relative income. Moreover, we used register data, allowing for precise measures of educational pairings and partners’ earnings.

Author’s Affiliation

• Alessandra Trimarchi - Università degli Studi di Messina (UNIME), Italy EMAIL
• Nadia Steiber - Universität Wien, Austria EMAIL
• Rudolf Winter-Ebmer - Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Austria EMAIL
• Caroline Berghammer - Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Austria EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Is single parenthood increasingly an experience of less-educated mothers? A European comparison over five decades
Volume 51 - Article 34

How much time is left? International trends in parenthood expectancy
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Gender differences and similarities in the educational gradient in fertility: The role of earnings potential and gender composition in study disciplines
Volume 39 - Article 13

Cohabitation and marriage in Austria: Assessing the individualization thesis across the life course
Volume 31 - Article 37

Towards a new understanding of cohabitation: Insights from focus group research across Europe and Australia
Volume 31 - Article 34

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