Agnese Vitali (Carlo F. Dondena Centre for Research on Social Dynamics, Università Bocconi) Francesco C. Billari (Carlo F. Dondena Centre for Research on Social Dynamics, IMQ and IGIER, Università Bocconi) Alexia Prskawetz (Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences) Maria Rita Testa (Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences)
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The discussion on the causes of the most recent fertility decline in Europe, and in particular on the emergence of lowest low fertility, emphasises the relevance of cultural factors in addition to economic ones. Being part of such a cultural framework, the heterogeneity of preferences concerning the “career vs. family” dichotomy has been systematised in the “Preference Theory” approach developed by Catherine Hakim. So far, however, this heterogeneity in preferences has been underinvestigated in a comparative framework. This paper makes use of new comparative data from the 2004/05 Round of the European Social Survey to test the links between individual-level preferences and both fertility outcomes and intentions in a variety of social settings. Results confirm a link between work-family lifestyle preferences and realised fertility in a variety of European countries, while they do not support the relevance of lifestyle preferences for fertility intentions.
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Paper provided by Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna in its series European Demographic Research Papers with number
0702.