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Title: Examining Fertility from a Couple-Perspective: Do Relative Resources Matter for First and Second Births?
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Nitsche, Natalie
Examining Fertility from a Couple-Perspective: Do Relative Resources Matter for First and Second Births?
Presented: Stockholm, Sweden, European Population Conference (EPC), June 2012
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: European Association for Population Studies (EAPS)
Keyword(s): Births, Repeat / Spacing; Childbearing; Cross-national Analysis; Educational Attainment; First Birth; Gender Attitudes/Roles; German Family Survey; German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP); Income Level; Modeling, Fixed Effects; National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

McDonald (2000) has suggested that socio-economic gender equity within couples is a crucial component in women’s fertility decisions and that its investigation will contribute to understanding low fertility in the Western world today. Empirically, however, little is known about how couple dynamics are influencing fertility outcomes. This paper examines if gender equity, measured as relative levels of income, education, work hours, and occupational status, affects the transition to first and second births in the US and Germany. While studies have investigated the effect of the gendered division of household labor on birth transitions, I argue that it is problematic as an indicator of intra-couple gender equity because research has shown that the division of household labor is itself an outcome of relative resources in couples. Using the NLSY79, the NSFH, the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), and the German Family Survey, this paper will use event history and fixed effects models to understand how relative resources, absolute resources, and their interaction affect the timing and likelihood of first and second births in couples.
Bibliography Citation
Nitsche, Natalie. "Examining Fertility from a Couple-Perspective: Do Relative Resources Matter for First and Second Births?" Presented: Stockholm, Sweden, European Population Conference (EPC), June 2012.