DIAS Event: 'The Fertility Drop Puzzle' by Gøsta Esping-Andersen

How do economic factors and cultural shifts uniquely influence fertility trends among different educational groups?

In this DIAS talk, Gøsta Esping-Andersen will compare fertility change 2000-2020 in order to understand, firstly, why a sudden and sharp drop in births occurred in so many countries in the 2010-20 decade, and why no recovery occurred. 
He highlights the opposite trend in another group. Postponement and the fall in fertility is primarily centered on first births, and it is skewed towards youth, and lower-educated women and men. It appears that the less educated are most likely to postpone and thereby converge with higher-educated age-wise. Esping-Andersen moves from a macro comparison to micro-data for select countries to identify the possible drivers of declining fertility with no recovery and rising fertility. He tests the effect of housing prices, employment precarity, income, unemployment, and of 'postmodern values'. 

About Gøsta Esping-Andersen
Gøsta Esping-Andersen is professor emeritus at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Born in Denmark, he studied demography, economics, and sociology at Copenhagen University and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he received his PhD. His scientific work centres on life course dynamics, social stratification, and comparative social policy. Before going to Pompeu Fabra, he taught at Harvard University, the University of Trento and the European University in Italy. His publications include: The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, for which he was awarded the APSA's Aaron Wildavsky Enduring Contribution Award in 2005; The Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies (translated into Italian and Japanese); Trois Lecons sur L'Etat Providence (Paris, Le Seuil), and Families in the 21st Century (2016). He is a research professor at the University of Bocconi since 2018. His current research focuses on two themes: one, on family demography and how women's changing roles influence family dynamics. Two, on social stratification and intergenerational social mobility.

When and where
4th December 2024, 11.15-12.15
DIAS Auditorium (SDU), Fioniavej 34, 5230 Odense M

Stream the event via Zoom