Volume 2 - Article 4 | Pages –  

Entry into motherhood in Sweden: The influence of economic factors on the rise and fall in fertility, 1986-1997

By Britta Hoem

Abstract

On the background of the dramatic swings in the Swedish TFR since the mid-1980s we present a first attempt at assessing the impact of labor-market trends on the timing of the first birth based on individual-level register data covering all Swedish women born in 1950 or later. Among our covariates we have each woman’s income, partitioned into any income earned from work, any unemployment benefits, and any public support for educational activities. We also have employment trends in her home municipality. The latter variables are included for every relevant year.
We find that first-birth rates rose and fell in step with municipal employment levels. The effect is especially strong for young women, and the decline in first birth during the 1990s was concentrated primarily among women aged below 30. First-birth rates increased with a woman’s earned income. Unemployed women did not have particularly low first-birth rates, but students did.

Author’s Affiliation

• Britta Hoem - Statistiska centralbyrån (Statistics Sweden), Sweden EMAIL

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

A parallel kinship universe? A replication of Kolk et al. (2023) with Dutch register data on kinship networks
Volume 52 - Article 28    | Keywords: administrative data, extended family networks, kinship structure, Netherlands, Sweden

Amish fertility in the United States: Comparative evidence from the American Community Survey and Amish population registries
Volume 52 - Article 26    | Keywords: American Community Survey (ACS), Amish, fertility, natural fertility, total fertility rate (TFR)

Examining the relationships between education, coresidential unions, and the fertility gap by simulating the reproductive life courses of Dutch women
Volume 52 - Article 24    | Keywords: contraception, education, fertility, GGS, life course, LISS, microsimulation, Netherlands, physiology, unions

Job creation, job destruction, and fertility in Germany
Volume 52 - Article 13    | Keywords: fertility, gender, Germany, job creation, job destruction, labor market, spatial modelling, unemployment

The changing inter-relationship between partnership dynamics and fertility trends in Europe and the United States: A review
Volume 52 - Article 7    | Keywords: childbearing, Europe, family complexity, fertility, fertility, marriage, partnership, United States of America