Do Cross-National Differences in the Costs of Children Influence Fertility Behavior?

Thomas DiPrete, Duke University
S. Philip Morgan, Duke University
Henriette Engelhardt, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Hana Pacalova, Duke University

The compatibility of working and caring for children depends on (1) flexibility in work schedules, including the possibility of extended leaves of absence to have and care for children, (2) the availability, affordability, and quality of child care, (3) relatively egalitarian gender roles that provide women with a helpmate for child care and housework, (4) economic security provided by own and partner’s labor earnings, supplemented by public policies that facilitate access to and the affordability of education, health care, housing, and secure employment, and (5) the stability of marriages or cohabitations, and the economic effects of separation on the women’s standard of living. Cross-national differences in these factors and their possible impacts on fertility patterns are illustrated with recent data from the US and Western Germany.