IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v19y2008i58.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Postponement and childlessness - Evidence from two British cohorts

Author

Listed:
  • Dylan Kneale

    (University College London (UCL))

  • Heather Joshi

    (University of London)

Abstract

This paper starts by reviewing existing projections of childlessness among British men and women. Low current fertility implies high eventual childlessness unless the postponement of parenthood is taken into account. Such re-timing of first births appears to be occurring differentially across social groups. Exploiting the disaggregated evidence of two British cohort studies, the 1958 National Child Development Study and the 1970 British Cohort Survey, this paper investigates the extent of postponement across cohorts and projects its impact on eventual levels of childlessness. Men and women are considered separately in our models of a population stratified by educational attainment. We find the most striking postponement occurring among graduate men. Among graduate women, after taking family building intentions into account, we estimate that about a quarter of 1970 born graduate women will remain childless, rather than something nearer 40 per cent as had been conjectured elsewhere.

Suggested Citation

  • Dylan Kneale & Heather Joshi, 2008. "Postponement and childlessness - Evidence from two British cohorts," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(58), pages 1935-1968.
  • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:19:y:2008:i:58
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2008.19.58
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol19/58/19-58.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2008.19.58?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Margaret E. Greene & Ann E. Biddlecom, 2000. "Absent and Problematic Men: Demographic Accounts of Male Reproductive Roles," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 26(1), pages 81-115, March.
    2. Cheti Nicoletti & Franco Peracchi, 2005. "Survey response and survey characteristics: microlevel evidence from the European Community Household Panel," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 168(4), pages 763-781, November.
    3. Ron Lesthaeghe & Paul Willems, 1999. "Is Low Fertility a Temporary Phenomenon in the European Union?," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 25(2), pages 211-228, June.
    4. Anita Ratcliffe & Sarah Smith, 2006. "Fertility and Women’s Education in the UK: A Cohort Analysis," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 07/165, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    5. Michael Rendall & Lynda Clarke & H. Peters & Nalini Ranjit & Georgia Verropoulou, 1999. "Incomplete reporting of men’s fertility in the united states and britain: A research note," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 36(1), pages 135-144, February.
    6. Heather Joshi, 2002. "Production, Reproduction, and Education: Women, Children, and Work in a British Perspective," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 28(3), pages 445-474, September.
    7. Jan M. Hoem & Gunnar Andersson & Gerda Neyer, 2006. "Education and childlessness," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 14(15), pages 331-380.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ian Dey & Fran Wasoff, 2010. "Another Child? Fertility Ideals, Resources and Opportunities," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 29(6), pages 921-940, December.
    2. Jonas Wood & Tine Kil & Karel Neels, 2014. "The educational gradient of childlessness and cohort parity progression in 14 low fertility countries," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 31(46), pages 1365-1416.
    3. Cheti Nicoletti & Maria Letizia Tanturri, 2008. "Differences in Delaying Motherhood Across European Countries: Empirical Evidence from the ECHP," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 24(2), pages 157-183, June.
    4. Marcia Carlson & Alicia VanOrman & Natasha Pilkauskas, 2013. "Examining the Antecedents of U.S. Nonmarital Fatherhood," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(4), pages 1421-1447, August.
    5. Ann Berrington & Eva Beaujouan & Juliet Stone, 2015. "Educational differences in timing and quantum of childbearing in Britain," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 33(26), pages 733-764.
    6. Katherine M. Johnson & Arthur L. Greil & Karina M. Shreffler & Julia McQuillan, 2018. "Fertility and Infertility: Toward an Integrative Research Agenda," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(5), pages 641-666, October.
    7. Julia S. Goldberg, 2011. "Identity Salience and Involvement among Resident and Nonresident Fathers," Working Papers 1323, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    8. d'Albis, Hippolyte & Greulich, Angela & Ponthiere, Gregory, 2018. "Development, fertility and childbearing age: A Unified Growth Theory," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 461-494.
    9. Becchetti, Leonardo & Conzo, Pierluigi & Salustri, Francesco, 2017. "The impact of health expenditure on the number of chronic diseases," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(9), pages 955-962.
    10. Cordula Zabel, 2009. "Do imputed education histories provide satisfactory results in fertility analysis in the Western German context?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 21(6), pages 135-176.
    11. Eric J. Tchetgen Tchetgen & Kathleen E. Wirth, 2017. "A general instrumental variable framework for regression analysis with outcome missing not at random," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 73(4), pages 1123-1131, December.
    12. Jan Dirk Vlasblom & Joop J. Schippers, 2004. "Increases in Female Labour Force Participation in Europe: Similarities and Differences," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 20(4), pages 375-392, December.
    13. Yi-Chuan Chang & Jui-Chung Allen Li, 2011. "Trends and Educational Differentials in Marriage Formation Among Taiwanese Women," Working Papers WR-891, RAND Corporation.
    14. Adrian Chadi, 2019. "Dissatisfied with life or with being interviewed? Happiness and the motivation to participate in a survey," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 53(3), pages 519-553, October.
    15. Maria Chiuri & Daniela Del Boca, 2010. "Home-leaving decisions of daughters and sons," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 393-408, September.
    16. Christopher R. Bollinger & Barry T. Hirsch, 2010. "GDP & Beyond – die europäische Perspektive," RatSWD Working Papers 165, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    17. Nicoletta Balbo & Francesco C. Billari & Melinda Mills, 2013. "Fertility in Advanced Societies: A Review of Research," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 1-38, February.
    18. Leonardo Becchetti & Pierluigi Conzo & Fabio Pisani, 2018. "Education and health in Europe," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(12), pages 1362-1377, March.
    19. Shripad Tuljapurkar, 2006. "Population Forecasts, Fiscal Policy, and Risk," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_471, Levy Economics Institute.
    20. Erica FIELD & Vera MOLITOR & Alice SCHOONBROODT & Michèle TERTILT, 2016. "Gender Gaps in Completed Fertility," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(2), pages 167-206, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    fertility; event history; postponement; childlessness; parenthood; intentions; graduate women;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    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:dem:demres:v:19:y:2008:i:58. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    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.