IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dem/wpaper/wp-2011-003.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fertility data for German speaking countries. What is the potential? Where are the pitfalls?

Author

Listed:
  • Michaela R. Kreyenfeld

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

  • Kryštof Zeman

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

  • Marion Burkimsher

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

  • Ina Jaschinski

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of fertility data for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Particular attention is given to the availability of order-specific fertility data. We discuss the quality of data provided by the Statistical Offices, both birth registration data and censuses or microcensuses. In addition, we explore how social science surveys can be used to generate order-specific fertility indicators, and compare fertility estimates across surveys with estimates from vital statistics. Prior studies have shown that there is a ’family bias’ in most surveys, with the fertility of the younger cohorts being overstated, because respondents with young children are easier to reach by the interviewers. Our assessment of various types of surveys from the three different countries does mostly support this notion. However, the ‘family bias’ is most pronounced in family surveys while all-purpose surveys suffer from it to a lesser extent. Weighting the data does not fully cure the ‘family bias’, which we attribute to the fact that the number of children is usually not considered in the sampling weights that are provided by the survey agencies and the Statistical Offices. The confounding role of migration in the production of reliable and comparable fertility statistics is also discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Michaela R. Kreyenfeld & Kryštof Zeman & Marion Burkimsher & Ina Jaschinski, 2011. "Fertility data for German speaking countries. What is the potential? Where are the pitfalls?," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2011-003, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2011-003
    DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2011-003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2011-003.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2011-003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sonja Haug, 2009. "Migration and Statistics," RatSWD Working Papers 101, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    2. Joshua R. Goldstein & Michaela R. Kreyenfeld, 2010. "East Germany overtakes West Germany: recent trends in order-specific fertility dynamics," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2010-033, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Isabella Buber-Ennser & Judith Kohlenberger & Bernhard Rengs & Zakarya Al Zalak & Anne Goujon & Erich Striessnig & Michaela Potančoková & Richard Gisser & Maria Rita Testa & Wolfgang Lutz, 2016. "Human Capital, Values, and Attitudes of Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(9), pages 1-29, September.
    2. Stichnoth, Holger & Yeter, Mustafa, 2013. "Cultural influences on the fertility behaviour of first- and second-generation immigrants in Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 13-023, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Isabella Buber-Ennser, 2014. "Attrition in the Austrian Generations and Gender Survey," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 31(16), pages 459-496.
    4. Kerstin Ruckdeschel & Lenore Sauer & Robert Naderi, 2016. "Reliability of retrospective event histories within the German Generations and Gender Survey," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(11), pages 321-358.
    5. Struffolino, Emanuela & Studer, Matthias & Fasang, Anette Eva, 2016. "Gender, education, and family life courses in East and West Germany: Insights from new sequence analysis techniques," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 29, pages 66-79.
    6. Jonas Wood & Karel Neels & Tine Kil, 2014. "The educational gradient of childlessness and cohort parity progression in 14 low fertility countries," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 31(46), pages 1365-1416.
    7. Ana Fostik & Mariana Fernández Soto & Fernando Ruiz-Vallejo & Daniel Ciganda, 2023. "Union Instability and Fertility: An International Perspective," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-47, December.
    8. Isabella Buber-Ennser & Ralina Panova & Jürgen Dorbritz, 2013. "Fertility Intentions Of University Graduates," Demográfia English Edition, Hungarian Demographic Research Institute, vol. 56(5), pages 5-34.
    9. Jorik Vergauwen & Jonas Wood & David De Wachter & Karel Neels, 2015. "Quality of demographic data in GGS Wave 1," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(24), pages 723-774.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Isabella Buber-Ennser & Ralina Panova & Jürgen Dorbritz, 2013. "Fertility Intentions Of University Graduates," Demográfia English Edition, Hungarian Demographic Research Institute, vol. 56(5), pages 5-34.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Germany; fertility;

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2011-003. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Wilhelm (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.