There is a vast empirical literature investigating the effects of childcare costs on female employment. Day-care costs are usually treated as a reduction in female wages and are supposed to reduce a woman’s propensity to participate in the labor market. In this paper we argue that an analysis...

In this methodological paper we discuss and apply machine learning tech-niques, a core research area in the artificial intelligence literature, to analyse simultaneously timing, sequencing, and quantum of life course events from a comparative perspective. We outline the need for techniques which...

In this paper we investigate the role economic resources play in the decision of young Italian adults to leave the parental home. This is of particular interest given that, in Italy, young people leave home considerably later than in other European countries. We use the first two waves of the...

Does a woman’s reproductive history influence her life span? This study explores the question on the basis of data from two contemporary female populations: England & Wales and Austria. It is the first comparative study that investigates the relationship between fertility and mortality late in...

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Variance effects, i.e., increases in the standard deviation of the fertility schedule over time, constitute a systematic and interesting aspect of recent fertility patterns in Europe. In this paper we investigate the relevance of these variance change for the evaluationof Swedish baby boom and...

Recent trends in German life expectancy show a considerable increase. Most of this increase has resulted from decreasing mortality at older ages. Patterns of oldest old mortality (ages 80+) differed significantly between men and women as well as between East and West Germany. While West German...

Parental preferences for the sex of children are a prominent subject of study in some Asian and African countries where sex-selective behavior has led to skewed sex-ratios. In Europe or North-America, by contrast, cross-sectional data does not reveal any clear pattern of sex-preferences....

How does a woman’s reproductive history influence her life span? We find that parity and both an early and late birth significantly influence longevity. The impact of a woman’s reproductive history on her life span is minor, however, compared to the influence of her level of education or...