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Racing Against the Biological Clock? Childbearing and Sterility Among Men and Women in Second Unions in France

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  • Eva Beaujouan

    (Vienna Institute of Demography/Austrian Academy of Sciences)

  • Anne Solaz

    (Institut National d’Études Démographiques)

Abstract

In developed countries, rising rates of union disruption have induced an increase in the share of people experiencing several fertile partnerships during their fertile life-span. However, from the large-scale 1999 French Family Survey, in the 1939–1954 birth cohorts it appears that completed fertility of repartnered men is slightly higher than that of never-separated men while repartnered women have fertility levels similar to those who remain in a first intact partnership. Following this observation, this article aims to study whether people, and especially women, have enough time to have children in the context of second union before they become limited by the “biological clock”. Using a cure model, we find that once age-related sterility is controlled for, the decrease in risk of having children with age is not visible anymore up to age 40. This offers some evidence that people in their second partnership, especially women, are constrained in their childbearing by the decline in fecundity with age. Additionally, childless women seem to respond proactively to the decline in fecundity with age by accelerating childbearing.

Suggested Citation

  • Eva Beaujouan & Anne Solaz, 2013. "Racing Against the Biological Clock? Childbearing and Sterility Among Men and Women in Second Unions in France," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 39-67, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:29:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1007_s10680-012-9271-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10680-012-9271-4
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    1. Paulina Gałęzewska & Brienna Perelli-Harris & Ann Berrington, 2017. "Cross-national differences in women's repartnering behaviour in Europe: The role of individual demographic characteristics," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(8), pages 189-228.
    2. Michaela Kreyenfeld & Dirk Konietzka & Philippe Lambert & Vincent Jerald Ramos, 2023. "Second Birth Fertility in Germany: Social Class, Gender, and the Role of Economic Uncertainty," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-27, December.
    3. Eva Beaujouan, 2018. "Late Fertility Intentions and Fertility in Austria," VID Working Papers 1806, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
    4. Elena Pirani & Daniele Vignoli, 2021. "Childbearing Across Partnerships in Italy: Prevalence, Demographic Correlates, Social Gradient," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2021_15, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    5. Vincent Bremhorst & Michaela Kreyenfeld & Philippe Lambert, 2016. "Fertility progression in Germany: An analysis using flexible nonparametric cure survival models," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 35(18), pages 505-534.
    6. Michaela Kreyenfeld & Esther Geisler & Teresa Castro Martín & Tina Hannemann & Valerie Heintz-Martin & Marika Jalovaara & Hill Kulu & Silvia Meggiolaro & Dimitri Mortelmans & Inge Pasteels & Marta Sei, 2017. "Social policies, separation, and second birth spacing in Western Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(37), pages 1245-1274.

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