New IZA DPs -- Fertility
0 views
Skip to first unread message
IZA Publications
Sep 27, 2025, 1:43:59 PM (yesterday) Sep 27
to it...@umich.edu
Dear Italo Gutierrez,
These new IZA Discussion Papers are now available online.
DP 18081 - Brainerd/Malkova:
How Religion Mediates the Fertility Response to Maternity Benefits
DP 18115 - Herrera-Almanza/McCarthy:
Strategic Responses to Disparities in Spousal Desired Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Rural Tanzania
DP 18120 - Bellou/Cardia/Lewis:
From Bust to Boom: The Great Depression and Women's Fertility
DP 18127 - De Paola/Nistico/Scoppa:
Workplace Peer Effects in Fertility Decisions
Please find the abstracts and download links below.
You might also be interested in this World of Labor content:
How religion shapes fertility responses to pronatalist policies
IZA DP No. 18081
Elizabeth Brainerd, Olga Malkova:
How Religion Mediates the Fertility Response to Maternity Benefits
Abstract:
Do religious beliefs affect responses to fertility incentives? We examine a 1982 maternity benefits expansion in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in a difference-in-differences framework with similar East European countries as comparisons. To isolate the importance of religion, we compare women who did and did not grow up in religious households when religion was formally outlawed, resulting in similar adult characteristics among women in the Baltics by importance of religion. Maternity benefits increased fertility only among women who grew up in religious families, providing novel evidence that cultural norms transmitted through the family can amplify the effects of public policies.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18081.pdf
IZA DP No. 18115
Catalina Herrera-Almanza, Aine Seitz McCarthy:
Strategic Responses to Disparities in Spousal Desired Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Rural Tanzania
Abstract:
In sub-Saharan Africa, the gap in fertility preferences between men and women may influence household fertility outcomes as men usually desire more children and have more intra-household bargaining power. We estimate the effect of an informational family planning program that randomizes the inclusion of husbands on fertility preferences (desired additional children) in rural Tanzania. Surprisingly, husbands who participated in joint family planning consultations increased their desired fertility, and their wives responded by also increasing their desired number of additional children, converging to his larger preferences. In contrast, women in private family planning consultations (without their husbands) reduced their fertility desires, while their husbands' preferences remained unchanged. We provide evidence that the increase in women's fertility preferences as a result of the joint consultations is related to polygamy. Women in polygamous marriages increase their demand for children substantially, likely as a strategic response to hearing their husbands' stated preferences during the joint consultations.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18115.pdf
IZA DP No. 18120
Andriana Bellou, Emanuela Cardia, Joshua Lewis:
From Bust to Boom: The Great Depression and Women's Fertility
Abstract:
The United States experienced dramatic swings in fertility over the course of the early- and mid-20th century. This paper presents a novel explanation for these changes, linking the Great Depression to the contemporaneous fertility bust in the early 1930s, the baby boom from the late-1930s through the 1950s, and the subsequent baby bust of the 1960s. Our empirical analysis is based on an event-study approach that links county-level measures of Depression severity to annual fertility rates over an extended 50-year time horizon. We find that the Great Depression can account for roughly half of the bust-boom-bust swings in fertility rates over this period. It can also account for large cross-cohort differences in lifecycle fertility pro les and completed childbearing. We present evidence for a mechanism that accounts for these patterns: the shock incentivized Depression-era women to delay childbearing and to increase lifetime labor force participation. This employment response, in turn, temporarily crowded-out economic opportunities for subsequent generations of women, contributing to their high fertility rates through the 1950s and early 1960s.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18120.pdf
IZA DP No. 18127
Maria De Paola, Roberto Nistico, Vincenzo Scoppa:
Workplace Peer Effects in Fertility Decisions
Abstract:
This paper examines the impact of co-workers’ fertility on individual fertility decisions. Using matched employer-employee data from Italian social security records (2016–2020), we estimate how fertility among co-workers of similar age and occupation affects the individual likelihood of having a child. We exploit variation introduced by the 2015 Jobs Act, which reduced fertility among workers hired under weaker employment protection. Focusing on workers hired before the reform and using the share of colleagues hired after the reform as an instrument for peer fertility, we find that a one-percentage-point increase in peer fertility raises individual fertility by 0.4 percentage points (a 10% increase). Heterogeneity analysis suggests that while social influence and social norms are key mechanisms, information sharing and career concerns, particularly among women, tend to moderate the response. Our findings highlight how changes in employment protection may have unintended ferti lity spillovers through workplace social interactions.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18127.pdf
Please click here to change your subscription status.
If you have trouble downloading the papers, or for any other questions regarding the IZA Discussion Paper Series, contact public...@iza.org.
These new IZA Discussion Papers are now available online.
DP 18081 - Brainerd/Malkova:
How Religion Mediates the Fertility Response to Maternity Benefits
DP 18115 - Herrera-Almanza/McCarthy:
Strategic Responses to Disparities in Spousal Desired Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Rural Tanzania
DP 18120 - Bellou/Cardia/Lewis:
From Bust to Boom: The Great Depression and Women's Fertility
DP 18127 - De Paola/Nistico/Scoppa:
Workplace Peer Effects in Fertility Decisions
Please find the abstracts and download links below.
You might also be interested in this World of Labor content:
How religion shapes fertility responses to pronatalist policies
IZA DP No. 18081
Elizabeth Brainerd, Olga Malkova:
How Religion Mediates the Fertility Response to Maternity Benefits
Abstract:
Do religious beliefs affect responses to fertility incentives? We examine a 1982 maternity benefits expansion in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in a difference-in-differences framework with similar East European countries as comparisons. To isolate the importance of religion, we compare women who did and did not grow up in religious households when religion was formally outlawed, resulting in similar adult characteristics among women in the Baltics by importance of religion. Maternity benefits increased fertility only among women who grew up in religious families, providing novel evidence that cultural norms transmitted through the family can amplify the effects of public policies.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18081.pdf
IZA DP No. 18115
Catalina Herrera-Almanza, Aine Seitz McCarthy:
Strategic Responses to Disparities in Spousal Desired Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Rural Tanzania
Abstract:
In sub-Saharan Africa, the gap in fertility preferences between men and women may influence household fertility outcomes as men usually desire more children and have more intra-household bargaining power. We estimate the effect of an informational family planning program that randomizes the inclusion of husbands on fertility preferences (desired additional children) in rural Tanzania. Surprisingly, husbands who participated in joint family planning consultations increased their desired fertility, and their wives responded by also increasing their desired number of additional children, converging to his larger preferences. In contrast, women in private family planning consultations (without their husbands) reduced their fertility desires, while their husbands' preferences remained unchanged. We provide evidence that the increase in women's fertility preferences as a result of the joint consultations is related to polygamy. Women in polygamous marriages increase their demand for children substantially, likely as a strategic response to hearing their husbands' stated preferences during the joint consultations.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18115.pdf
IZA DP No. 18120
Andriana Bellou, Emanuela Cardia, Joshua Lewis:
From Bust to Boom: The Great Depression and Women's Fertility
Abstract:
The United States experienced dramatic swings in fertility over the course of the early- and mid-20th century. This paper presents a novel explanation for these changes, linking the Great Depression to the contemporaneous fertility bust in the early 1930s, the baby boom from the late-1930s through the 1950s, and the subsequent baby bust of the 1960s. Our empirical analysis is based on an event-study approach that links county-level measures of Depression severity to annual fertility rates over an extended 50-year time horizon. We find that the Great Depression can account for roughly half of the bust-boom-bust swings in fertility rates over this period. It can also account for large cross-cohort differences in lifecycle fertility pro les and completed childbearing. We present evidence for a mechanism that accounts for these patterns: the shock incentivized Depression-era women to delay childbearing and to increase lifetime labor force participation. This employment response, in turn, temporarily crowded-out economic opportunities for subsequent generations of women, contributing to their high fertility rates through the 1950s and early 1960s.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18120.pdf
IZA DP No. 18127
Maria De Paola, Roberto Nistico, Vincenzo Scoppa:
Workplace Peer Effects in Fertility Decisions
Abstract:
This paper examines the impact of co-workers’ fertility on individual fertility decisions. Using matched employer-employee data from Italian social security records (2016–2020), we estimate how fertility among co-workers of similar age and occupation affects the individual likelihood of having a child. We exploit variation introduced by the 2015 Jobs Act, which reduced fertility among workers hired under weaker employment protection. Focusing on workers hired before the reform and using the share of colleagues hired after the reform as an instrument for peer fertility, we find that a one-percentage-point increase in peer fertility raises individual fertility by 0.4 percentage points (a 10% increase). Heterogeneity analysis suggests that while social influence and social norms are key mechanisms, information sharing and career concerns, particularly among women, tend to moderate the response. Our findings highlight how changes in employment protection may have unintended ferti lity spillovers through workplace social interactions.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18127.pdf
Please click here to change your subscription status.
If you have trouble downloading the papers, or for any other questions regarding the IZA Discussion Paper Series, contact public...@iza.org.
IZA Publications
Sep 27, 2025, 1:46:00 PM (yesterday) Sep 27
to italo...@gmail.com
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages