In this paper we use new methods and data to reassess the relationship between the age at first birth and completed fertility. In particular we attempt to properly estimate the postponement effect, i.e., the reduction in fertility associated with a delay in childbearing, using a sample of Danish...

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...

Empirical research investigating gender preferences for children and their implications for fertility decisions in advanced industrial societies is relatively scarce. Recent studies on this matter have presented ambiguous evidence regarding the existence as well as the direction such preferences...

Aspects of below-replacement fertility have long been debated among academics. Analyzing 437 popular newspaper and magazine articles from eleven developed countries during 1998-99, this study documents and investigates the corresponding public debate about low fertility. Despite the diversity in...

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We investigate the timing of fertility and marriage as it depends on educational attainment utilizing a birth-month experiment in Sweden that leads to exogenous variation in the age at completing schooling. Our analysis finds that the difference of 11 months in the age at school-leaving between...

In this paper we discuss trends in the limits to late childbearing, their determinants and potential implications from an empirical long-term perspective. Although the high levels observed in non-contracepting populations have not been reached, fertility in Europe at ages 40+ and 45+ has...

A fundamental reversal of the traditional fertility-development relationship has occurred in highly developed countries so that further socioeconomic development is no longer associated with decreasing fertility, but with increasing fertility. In this paper, we seek to shed light on the...

In this paper we conduct descriptive aggregate analyses to revisit the relation between low and lowest-low period fertility on the one, and cohort fertility and key fertility-related behaviors---such as leaving the parental home, marriage and female labor force participation---on the other side....

In this paper we establish the asymptotic distribution of DeFries-Fulker (1985) regression estimates for heritability and shared environmental influences with double-entry twin data. A simple formula to estimate the covariance matrix of the coefficients in DF-regressions is provided, and...