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Third Births in Austria: the Effect of Public Policies, Educational Attainment and Labour-Force Attachment

Author

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  • Fürnkranz-Prskawetz, Alexia
  • Hoem, Jan Michael
  • Neyer, Gerda

Abstract

Total fertility in Austria has declined slowly but persistently from about 1.7 in the late 1970s to around 1.4 in the mid-90s, a reduction of less than twenty percent. As we show in this paper, a much stronger reduction (over fifty percent) occured over the same period in the standardized rate of third births. This decline was accompanied by a gradual postponement of the third birth over the years up through 1991-2, after which there was a sudden increase in the tempo of childbearing in response to a change in the parental-leave policy that inadvertently favoured women who had their second or subsequent child shortly after their previous one. We cannot find any indication that the general decline in third births can be seen as a consequence of women's increasing independence of their husbands at the stage in life that we study. Furthermore, it still seems to be more difficult to combine motherhood and market work in Austria than in Sweden, which is a leader in reducing such incompatibility. We conclude that these results mirror some of the ambiguities in public policies in Austria, especially the tension between the development of gender equality and the dominance of traditional norms.

Suggested Citation

  • Fürnkranz-Prskawetz, Alexia & Hoem, Jan Michael & Neyer, Gerda, 1999. "Third Births in Austria: the Effect of Public Policies, Educational Attainment and Labour-Force Attachment," CEPR Discussion Papers 2162, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:2162
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Laura Stark & Hans-Peter Kohler, 2000. "The public perception and discussion of falling birth rates: the recent debate over low fertility in the popular press," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2000-009, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    2. Isabella Buber-Ennser & Alexia Prskawetz, 2000. "Fertility in second unions in Austria," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 3(2).
    3. Hilke Brockmann, 1999. "Girls preferred? Changing patterns of gender preferences in the two German states," MPIDR Working Papers WP-1999-010, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    4. Kravdal,O., 2001. "The high fertility of college educated women in Norway : an artefact of the 'piecemeal approach'," Memorandum 22/2001, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    5. Diana Berinde, 1999. "Pathways to a Third Child in Sweden," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 15(4), pages 349-378, December.
    6. Isabella Buber, 2002. "The influence of the distribution of household and childrearing tasks between men and women on childbearing intentions in Austria," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2002-004, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    7. Isabella Buber-Ennser, 2003. "The influence of the distribution of household and childrearing tasks between men and woman on childbearing intentions in Austria," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 1(1), pages 165-180.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; Event History Analysis; Fertility; Labour-Force Attachment; Public Policies; Third Births;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C49 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Other
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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