We examine the effect of delaying motherhood on the transition to the second childbirth across European countries. There exist two opposite forces of delaying the first birth: biological and socio-cultural factors producing a postponement effect and career-related factors leading to a catch-up effect. Estimating a multistate duration model that addresses the endogeneity of age at first birth, we find a catch-up effect in countries where the career effect is large and a postponement effect in countries where the opportunity cost of childbearing is relatively high due to the lack of family friendly institutions and cultural influences, which may discourage late childbearing. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.
CITATION STYLE
Bratti, M., & Tatsiramos, K. (2011). The effect of delaying motherhood on the second childbirth in Europe. Journal of Population Economics, 25(1), 291–321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-010-0341-9
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