Family change, public policies and birth-rates

Many believe that family policies (e.g. paid-leave arrangements, cash-for-care benefits, etc.) and public care provision (services for children and dependent adults) have a positive impact on both female employment and birth-rates in Nordic countries, but how consistent, durable and robust are such effects? Do different national constellations of gender and family policies give disimilar effects on fertility decisions and the prevalence of child/family poverty? Do ethnic majorities and minorities respond differently to such public provisions?

How does the fertility of different groups; including the fertility of different immigrant groups, develop? To what extent will marriage migration among immigrant groups increase or decrease? How do family and welfare policies interact with the comparatively high mean age of first marriage and first birth, high rates of cohabitation and parental break-up, and high proportion of children growing up in one-parent households in the Nordic countries? How are lone-parents (mostly lone-mothers) and their children affected by the growing presumption of a dual-earner family in the Nordic countries?

Finally, to what extent do family changes influence patterns of intergenerational and intragenerational mobility among the Nordic countries, and if so, what can explain intra-Nordic similarities and differences?

Leader: Mai Heide Ottosen
Head of Research, The Danish National Centre of Social Research
E-mail: mho(a)sfi.dk, Phone: +45 33 48 08 88