IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joprea/v36y2019i1d10.1007_s12546-018-9218-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Research note: What kind of individual-level effects of childbearing would we ideally be interested in learning about? The important distinction between expected, unexpected, varying and general effects

Author

Listed:
  • Øystein Kravdal

    (University of Oslo
    Norwegian Institute of Public Health)

Abstract

Some consequences of childbearing for the parents and children are partly expected by the parents, while others to a larger extent are unexpected. Also, some are rather general while others vary greatly between individuals. In principle, it would be valuable for individual fertility decision-makers to learn about consequences of childbearing that they are currently not aware of. This can be achieved by disseminating existing expert knowledge about effects that are likely to be poorly known to the public, and by doing further research on effects of childbearing. Knowledge about effects that are rather general, such as those involving physiological mechanisms, would be particularly valuable. Other effects, which may be described as social–behavioural, are to a larger extent expected and varying, and are therefore both harder to estimate and less important for individual decision-makers to learn about. For politicians and planners, knowledge about all types of consequences may be helpful, and perhaps especially those that are rather general.

Suggested Citation

  • Øystein Kravdal, 2019. "Research note: What kind of individual-level effects of childbearing would we ideally be interested in learning about? The important distinction between expected, unexpected, varying and general effec," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 1-12, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joprea:v:36:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s12546-018-9218-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s12546-018-9218-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12546-018-9218-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12546-018-9218-7?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arnstein Aassve & Stefano Mazzuco & Letizia Mencarini, 2006. "An empirical investigation into the effect of childbearing on economic wellbeing in Europe," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 15(2), pages 209-227, August.
    2. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2005. "The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Children's Education," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 669-700.
    3. Christian N. Brinch & Magne Mogstad & Matthew Wiswall, 2017. "Beyond LATE with a Discrete Instrument," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(4), pages 985-1039.
    4. Øystein Kravdal, 2014. "The Estimation of Fertility Effects on Happiness: Even More Difficult than Usually Acknowledged," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 263-290, August.
    5. Mikko Myrskylä & Rachel Margolis, 2014. "Happiness: Before and After the Kids," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(5), pages 1843-1866, October.
    6. Grundy, Emily & Kravdal, Øystein, 2010. "Fertility history and cause-specific mortality: A register-based analysis of complete cohorts of Norwegian women and men," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1847-1857, June.
    7. Kieron Barclay & Mikko Myrskylä, 2016. "Advanced Maternal Age and Offspring Outcomes: Reproductive Aging and Counterbalancing Period Trends," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 42(1), pages 69-94, March.
    8. Joshua Angrist & Victor Lavy & Analia Schlosser, 2010. "Multiple Experiments for the Causal Link between the Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(4), pages 773-824, October.
    9. Heather Boushey, 2008. "“Opting out?” The effect of children on women's employment in the United States," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 1-36.
    10. Mikko Myrskylä & Rachel Margolis, 2014. "Happiness - before and after the Kids," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 642, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    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. Øystein Kravdal, 2021. "Sex Differences in Childlessness in Norway: Identification of Underlying Demographic Drivers," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 37(4), pages 1023-1041, November.

    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. Kravdal, Øystein, 2016. "Expected and unexpected consequences of childbearing – a methodologically and politically important distinction that is overlooked," Memorandum 05/2016, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    2. Øystein Kravdal, 2014. "The Estimation of Fertility Effects on Happiness: Even More Difficult than Usually Acknowledged," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 263-290, August.
    3. Barbara Pertold-Gebicka & Dominika Spolcova, 2019. "Family Size and Subjective Well-being in Europe: Do More Children Make Us (Un)Happy?," Working Papers IES 2019/24, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Aug 2019.
    4. Sonia Bhalotra & Damian Clarke, 2020. "The Twin Instrument: Fertility and Human Capital Investment," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(6), pages 3090-3139.
    5. Małgorzata Mikucka & Ester Rizzi, 2020. "The Parenthood and Happiness Link: Testing Predictions from Five Theories," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 36(2), pages 337-361, April.
    6. Siobhan Austen & Jaslin Kalsi & Astghik Mavisakalyan, 2023. "Parenthood and the distribution of intra-household inequalities in wellbeing," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 21(2), pages 405-440, June.
    7. Bruno Arpino & Jordi Gumà & Albert JuliÃ, 2021. "Deviations From Standard Family Histories and Subjective Wellbeing at Older Ages," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2021_16, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    8. Frühwirth-Schnatter, Sylvia & Halla, Martin & Posekany, Alexandra & Pruckner, Gerald J. & Schober, Thomas, 2014. "The Quantity and Quality of Children: A Semi-Parametric Bayesian IV Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 8024, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Mikucka, Malgorzata, 2015. "How does parenthood affect life satisfaction in Russia?," MPRA Paper 65376, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Jan Priebe, 2020. "Quasi-experimental evidence for the causal link between fertility and subjective well-being," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 839-882, July.
    11. Semih Tumen & Belgi Turan, 2023. "The effect of fertility on female labor supply in a labor market with extensive informality," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(4), pages 1855-1894, October.
    12. Małgorzata Mikucka & Ester Rizzi, 2016. "Does it take a village to raise a child?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(34), pages 943-994.
    13. Nicoletta Balbo & Bruno Arpino, 2016. "The Role of Family Orientations in Shaping the Effect of Fertility on Subjective Well-being: A Propensity Score Matching Approach," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(4), pages 955-978, August.
    14. Halla, Martin & Zweimüller, Martina, 2014. "Parental Response to Early Human Capital Shocks: Evidence from the Chernobyl Accident," IZA Discussion Papers 7968, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Márta K. Radó, 2020. "Tracking the Effects of Parenthood on Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Hungary," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(6), pages 2069-2094, August.
    16. Jessica Nisén & Maarten J. Bijlsma & Pekka Martikainen & Ben Wilson & Mikko Myrskylä, 2019. "The gendered impacts of delayed parenthood on educational and labor market outcomes: a dynamic analysis of population-level effects over young adulthood," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2019-017, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    17. Anne Roeters & Jornt J. Mandemakers & Marieke Voorpostel, 2016. "Parenthood and Well-Being: The Moderating Role of Leisure and Paid Work," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 381-401, August.
    18. Gerrit Bauer & Martina Brandt & Thorsten Kneip, 2023. "The Role of Parenthood for Life Satisfaction of Older Women and Men in Europe," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 275-307, January.
    19. Kravdal, Øystein, 2013. "Reflections on the Search for Fertility Effects on Happiness," Memorandum 10/2013, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    20. Chris M. Herbst & John Ifcher, 2016. "The increasing happiness of US parents," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 529-551, September.

    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:spr:joprea:v:36:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s12546-018-9218-7. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.