Gender and Differential Fertility in Developed Countries

Antonella Pinnelli, Università La Sapienza

Studies on differential fertility use the characteristics of the women or a mix of the characteristics of the woman and her partner as possible influencing factors, rarely considering only the characteristics of men. The opportunity to use women, men, or couples' characteristics to explain fertility behavior has not been seriously discussed. Changing gender roles, with greater involvement of women in the labor market and of men in domestic tasks and child rearing, make it necessary to reconsider the factors of differential fertility trying to find the best mix of variables to use. Moreover, institutional factors helping to reconcile work and family have to be considered. I applied a mixture model on FFS (Fertility and Family Survey) data of countries with different institutional arrangements for the two genders separately and for the couples, trying to find the best mix of the characteristics of both partners to explain fertility in developed countries.