IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/popdev/v50y2024is1p9-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fertility and Family Dynamics in the Aftermath of the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Natalie Nitsche
  • Joshua Wilde

Abstract

When the COVID‐19 pandemic began in early 2020, speculation was rife both in public and academic spheres over its possible effects on birth rates and partnership behavior. Now, over four years later, we still know surprisingly little about the effect of COVID‐19 on fertility and family dynamics. In this paper, we outline three main takeaways from the scientific literature produced on this topic in the past four years. We argue that (1) we still do not have enough data to answer basic questions about the effect of COVID‐19 on fertility and family dynamics, (2) the data we do have suggest an unexpectedly incoherent and heterogeneous response, and (3) the estimated effects we do have are suspect since shifting and theoretically unexpected prepandemic fertility behavior made identifying a strict causal effect of the pandemic problematic.

Suggested Citation

  • Natalie Nitsche & Joshua Wilde, 2024. "Fertility and Family Dynamics in the Aftermath of the COVID‐19 Pandemic," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 50(S1), pages 9-22, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:popdev:v:50:y:2024:i:s1:p:9-22
    DOI: 10.1111/padr.12648
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12648
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/padr.12648?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    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:bla:popdev:v:50:y:2024:i:s1:p:9-22. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0098-7921 .

    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.