repro

Macro-level comparisons show that both higher fertility and female employment rates are simultaneously found in countries where institutional support for working parents is comparatively comprehensive, although the patterns of support differ from country to country. Thus, schematically speaking, Nordic European countries (and France) provide a relatively high level of balanced and continuous support to working parents. In these countries, high fertility rates go along with relatively high female full-time employment rates. However, the impact of policies was found to be modest or non-existent with respect to the fertility level, while it is more pronounced with respect to the timing of childbearing. In particular cash benefits and financial support have a limited impact on the level of fertility, whereas work-related policies tend to be more effective. 

Fertility intentions are a main component of reproductive decision-making. REPRO studies them from the viewpoint of the social psychological theory of planned behaviour (TPB), which has been used to analyse intentions that lead to demographic events. Applying the TPB to childbearing intentions will significantly extend the demographic research on fertility intentions, which has mainly relied on the direct empirical relationship between intentions and subsequent behaviour until now. The TPB comprises three blocks of determinants of intentions: (1) attitudes towards childbearing, (2) subjective norms and influence of important others and (3) perceived control over the behaviour. Each of these blocks includes several components. Applying the theory will therefore expand our knowledge on the importance of a large variety of proximate determinants of fertility intentions, which per se are proximate determinants of childbearing. 

The TPB sets rigorous standards for the definition and measurement of intentions. First, the behaviour itself requires a clear and precise measurement. Next, the researcher must clearly define the intention’s target and the action that needs to be taken to reach the target. In the case of childbearing, intentions have to be explicitly specified for the order of the intended birth and for the union status of the person. Moreover, the certainty of intentions also has to be explicitly measured. To be certain, intentions have to refer to a short time interval in order to diminish the impact of external factors that might cause a revision. For this reason, REPRO mainly focuses on explaining short- to mid-term intentions. The REPRO project will make use of an operationalisation of the TPB included in the Generations and Gender Surveys, which became available recently. 

Qualitative research on reproductive decision-making in low fertility contexts can be divided into two major streams: (1) studies which refer to elements of the decision process (attitudes, norms, values and conditions related to becoming parents, family size and childbearing timing) and (2) studies which focus on the decisional process itself (phases, rank in the priority of decisions, deferral and activation). The value of qualitative analysis is its ability to reveal the variability and complexity of decision-making, actions and behaviour. Recently, a large number of qualitative studies on attitudes, values, norms and social influences as well as on the way the latter are exercised in conjunction with individually perceived constraints and priorities related to childbearing decision-making were carried out in different parts of Europe. However, systematic comparative qualitative analyses of such data across contexts and generations are as rare as they are pivotal for interpreting the correlation between fertility intentions and fertility behaviour across population subgroups. 

The realisation or non-realisation of childbearing intentions is a key issue in the REPRO project. Contemporary research reports controversial facts about the reliability of fertility intentions as a predictor of fertility behaviour. While some authors note a good relationship between intentions and subsequent births, others find this relationship poor and insufficient for fertility forecasts. Most of the research was, however, based on macro-level data and only a few studies analyse the realisation of individual intentions. 

So far, we have discussed macro-level correlations between fertility, on the one hand, and economic, institutional, societal and cultural factors, on the other hand. We also addressed micro-level studies of fertility intentions and behaviour. The third and definitely smallest set of empirical studies available so far pools micro-level data from a variety of macro contexts, analyses these jointly and tries to account for variation across countries by including macro-level characteristics. In these macro-micro studies, information from both analytical levels is combined in one statistical model. The macro contexts could be countries (to study differences across countries) or years (to study change within countries). Only very few studies have used this macro-micro strategy to examine the influence of macro factors on fertility behaviour or fertility desires. Moreover, most of these studies are so recent that they have not (yet) been published in peer-reviewed journals but only circulated as working papers. At least two reasons account for the lack of this type of studies. First, we need statistical models that allow us to account for the fact that individual-level data are clustered within a hierarchical structure. Multi-level models that can handle this kind of data have only recently become more common in the social sciences. Second, we need datasets that (a) are highly comparable across countries or across periods if we study changes in fertility decision-making across time and (b) include a sufficiently large number of countries to make multi-level modelling feasible. Only recently have such datasets as the Fertility and Family Surveys, the European Community Household Panel or the European Social Survey become available. 

The REPRO project [you need vpn] shares some aims with several other research projects funded by the European Commission. Opportunities for syncretism exist and will be used extensively.