Female Labour Market Behaviour and Fertility

Since 1987, the investigation of the relationship between female labour market behaviour and fertility, which forms part of the research programme of the Economic Institute / Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Labour Market and Distribution Issues (CIAV) of Utrecht University, also became a part of the research programme of the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI). Since then, I have been entrusted with research on this topic. In this context, I acted on a suggestion made by Frans Willekens to organize an international workshop, with the help of other members of the NIDI staff and with the administrative and organizational support of the NIDI. This resulted in the workshop "Female Labour Market Behaviour and Fertility: Preferences, Restrictions, Behaviour," held at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute in The Hague, April 20-22, 1989, under the auspices of the European Association for Population Studies (EAPS). In this workshop, demographers, econometricians, economists, psychologists and socio­ logists discussed the paths to a truly interdisciplinary approach to the relationship between female labour market behaviour and fertility. Such an interdisciplinary approach requires a common theoretical framework. The rational-choice framework was considered to be best suited to this purpose. As a consequence, the workshop was not only structured by what was studied, but also by how it was studied. This volume consists of the papers presented at the above-mentioned workshop, as revised by the authors in collaboration with the editors.

Contenu

1. Editors' Introduction.- I: Theoretical Points of Departure.- 2. Understanding the Interdependence between Parallel Careers.- 3. Social Approval, Fertility and Female Labour Market.- II: Preferences.- 4. De Gustibus Confusi Sumus ?.- 5. Shortcuts as Pitfalls ? Ways of Measuring Childbearing Preferences and Intentions.- 6. Motivation of Reproductive Behaviour and the Professional Motivation of Women.- 7. A Purposeful Behaviour Theory of Work and Family Size Decisions.- III: Restrictions.- 8. A Biographic/Demographic Analysis of the Relationship between Fertility and Occupational Activity of Women and Married Couples.- 9. Labour Market Restrictions and the Role of Preferences in Family Economics.- IV: Confrontation of Preferences and Restrictions: The Construction of Theoretical Models.- 10. Economic Models of Women's Employment and Fertility.- 11. Models of Female Labour Market Supply, with Special Reference to the Effects of Children.- 12. Children and Female Labour Supply: A Survey of Econometric Approaches.- 13. How Economics, Psychology and Sociology Might Produce a Unified Theory of Fertility and Labour Market Participation.- V: Towards a Better Understanding of the Relationship Between Female Labour Market Behaviour and Fertility.- 14. Towards a Better Understanding of the Relationship between Female Labour Market Behaviour and Fertility.- References.- Author index.- Curricula Vitae.