IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v650y2013i1p214-231.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effects of the Great Recession on Family Structure and Fertility

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Cherlin
  • Erin Cumberworth
  • S. Philip Morgan
  • Christopher Wimer

Abstract

Recessions can alter family life by constraining the choices that individuals and couples make concerning their family lives and by activating the family’s role as an emergency support system. Both effects were visible during and after the Great Recession. Fertility declined by 9 to 11 percent, depending on the measure, and the decline was greater in states that experienced higher increases in unemployment. The decline was greater among younger women, which suggests postponement rather than forgoing of births. The fall in fertility was sharpest for Hispanics, a result the authors attribute to a drop in Mexican immigration, which reduced the number of recent immigrants, the group with the highest fertility. Substantial increases occurred in the percentage of young adults, single and married, who lived with their parents, augmenting a long-term trend toward intergenerational coresidence. There was a slight decline in divorce and separation in states with higher unemployment.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Cherlin & Erin Cumberworth & S. Philip Morgan & Christopher Wimer, 2013. "The Effects of the Great Recession on Family Structure and Fertility," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 650(1), pages 214-231, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:650:y:2013:i:1:p:214-231
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716213500643
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716213500643
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716213500643?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. Emilio Parrado, 2011. "How High is Hispanic/Mexican Fertility in the United States? Immigration and Tempo Considerations," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(3), pages 1059-1080, August.
    2. Tomáš Sobotka & Vegard Skirbekk & Dimiter Philipov, 2011. "Economic Recession and Fertility in the Developed World," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 37(2), pages 267-306, June.
    3. Hellerstein Judith K & Morrill Melinda Sandler, 2011. "Booms, Busts, and Divorce," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-28, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anna Barbuscia & Ariane Pailhé & Anne Solaz, 2023. "Do Income and Employment Uncertainty Affect Couple Stability? Evidence for France During the COVID-19 Pandemic," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-35, December.
    2. Sarah Jiyoon Kwon, 2024. "Grandparents and parental labor supply during the COVID-19 pandemic," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 935-964, September.
    3. Martha J. Bailey & Lea Bart & Vanessa Wanner Lang, 2022. "The Missing Baby Bust: The Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Contraceptive Use, Pregnancy, and Childbirth Among Low-Income Women," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(4), pages 1549-1569, August.
    4. Andrew L. Owen, 2022. "The Fracking Boom, Labor Structure, and Adolescent Fertility," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(5), pages 2211-2231, October.
    5. Daniel Dench & Wenhui Li & Theodore Joyce & Howard Minkoff & Gretchen Wye, 2024. "Fertility in the Heart of the COVID-19 Storm," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 43(4), pages 1-20, August.
    6. Mizuki Komura & Hikaru Ogawa, 2022. "COVID-19, marriage, and divorce in Japan," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 831-853, September.
    7. Vakulenko, E. & Ryzhkina, A., 2024. "APC modeling of the relationship between birth order fertility rates and economic shocks in Russia," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 64(3), pages 84-102.
    8. Konstantinos N. Zafeiris & Georgios Kontogiannis & Byron Kotzamanis, 2024. "The evolution of fertility in Greece since the 1960s: a joinpoint regression analysis," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 1-20, December.
    9. Katherine Tierney, 2022. "The Future of Assisted Reproductive Technology Live Births in the United States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(5), pages 2289-2309, October.
    10. Anna Matysiak & Daniela Bellani & Honorata Bogusz, 2023. "Industrial Robots and Regional Fertility in European Countries," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-36, December.
    11. Adriana M. Reyes, 2022. "Race and Ethnic Differences in Financial Dependency of Coresident Young Adults During Economic Recessions and Over Time," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 51-65, March.
    12. Gonzalez, Fidel & Quast, Troy, 2022. "The relationship between abortion rates and economic fluctuations," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    13. Kwon, Sarah Jiyoon, 2023. "Grandparents and Parental Labor Supply during COVID-19 Pandemic," OSF Preprints jxyvn, Center for Open Science.
    14. Georgios Mavropoulos, 2024. "What drives period fertility rates during post-recession spells?," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 1-26, December.

    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. Yue Yin & Ye Jiang, 2023. "Fertility Effects of Labor Market Conditions at Graduation," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 31(4), pages 120-152, July.
    2. Lawrence M Berger & Giulia Ferrari & Marion Leturcq & Lidia Panico & Anne Solaz, 2021. "COVID-19 lockdowns and demographically-relevant Google Trends: A cross-national analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-28, March.
    3. Garrett Anstreicher, 2020. "Family Formation and the Great Recession," Working Papers 20-42, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. Karen Benjamin Guzzo & Sarah R. Hayford, 2023. "Evolving Fertility Goals and Behaviors in Current U.S. Childbearing Cohorts," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 49(1), pages 7-42, March.
    5. Nathan Seltzer, 2019. "Beyond the Great Recession: Labor Market Polarization and Ongoing Fertility Decline in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1463-1493, August.
    6. Maria Iacovou, 2013. "The relationship between incomes and living arrangements: variation between countries, over the life course, and over time," ImPRovE Working Papers 13/15, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    7. Dmitriy Gorskiy, 2023. "The maternity capital and probability of second birth in Russia: Explaining the last 10 Years' fertility patterns," French Stata Users' Group Meetings 2023 30, Stata Users Group.
    8. Thomas Baudin & David de la Croix & Paula E. Gobbi, 2015. "Fertility and Childlessness in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(6), pages 1852-1882, June.
    9. Chiara Ludovica Comolli, 2017. "The fertility response to the Great Recession in Europe and the United States: Structural economic conditions and perceived economic uncertainty," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(51), pages 1549-1600.
    10. Caroline Krafft, 2020. "Why is fertility on the rise in Egypt? The role of women’s employment opportunities," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 1173-1218, October.
    11. Kolk, Martin, 2019. "Demographic Theory and Population Ethics – Relationships between Population Size and Population Growth," SocArXiv 62wxd, Center for Open Science.
    12. Zuleika Ferre & Patricia Triunfo & Jos'e-Ignacio Ant'on, 2023. "The short- and long-term determinants of fertility in Uruguay," Papers 2304.00539, arXiv.org.
    13. Angela Luci-Greulich & Olivier Thévenon, 2013. "The Impact of Family Policies on Fertility Trends in Developed Countries," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(4), pages 387-416, November.
    14. Kristiina Huttunen & Jenni Kellokumpu, 2016. "The Effect of Job Displacement on Couples' Fertility Decisions," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(2), pages 403-442.
    15. Mazhar Mughal & Rashid Javed, 2022. "Perturbed nuptiality, delayed fertility: childbirth effects of Covid19," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 589-597, December.
    16. Basu, Alaka & Desai, Sonalde, 2016. "Hopes, Dreams and Anxieties: India’s One-Child Families," MPRA Paper 117304, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Héctor Bellido & Miriam Marcén, 2019. "Fertility and the business cycle: the European case," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1289-1319, December.
    18. Ana Cristina Lindsay & Márcia Maria Tavares Machado & Sherrie F Wallington & Mary L Greaney, 2019. "Sociocultural and interpersonal influences on latina women’s beliefs, attitudes, and experiences with gestational weight gain," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(7), pages 1-15, July.
    19. Silvia Meggiolaro & Fausta Ongaro & Elena Pirani, 2024. "First Union Formation in Italy: The Role of Micro- and Macro-Level Economic Conditions," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 40(1), pages 1-34, December.
    20. Liepmann, Hannah, 2018. "The impact of a negative labor demand shock on fertility – Evidence from the fall of the Berlin Wall," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 210-224.

    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:sae:anname:v:650:y:2013:i:1:p:214-231. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.