FROM EMPTY PEWS TO EMPTY CRADLES: FERTILITY DECLINE AMONG EUROPEAN CATHOLICS

Eli Berman · Laurence R. Iannaccone · Giuseppe Ragusa

53 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Demographic Economics

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Family Dynamics and Relationships Catholicism and Religious Studies Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics

Abstract

Abstract: Total fertility in the Catholic countries of Southern Europe has dropped to remarkably low rates (=1.4) despite continuing low rates female labor force participation and high historic fertility. We model three ways in whichreligionaffects the demand for children – through norms, market wages, and childrearing costs. We estimate these effects using new panel data on church attendance and clergy employment for 13 European countries from 1960 to 2000, spanning the Second Vatican Council (1962–65). Using nuns per capita as a proxy for service provision, we estimate fertility effects on the order of 300 to 400 children per nun. Moreover, nuns outperform priests as a predictor of fertility, suggesting that changes in childrearing costs dominate changes in theology and norms. Reduced church attendance also predicts fertility decline, but only for Catholics, not for Protestants. Service provision and attendance complement each other, a finding consistent with club models of religion.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 53 citations exist upstream.

References

1776An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations 1991A Treatise on the Family 1916THE ELEMENTARY FORMS OF RELIGIOUS LIFE 2000Economics and Identity*2008Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors 1946From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology n.d.Economics of the Family: Marriage, Children, and Human Capital 1992Sacrifice and Stigma: Reducing Free-riding in Cults, Communes, and Other Collectives

Cited by

2011The End of Secularization in Europe?: A Socio-Demographic Perspective 2015Child Care Arrangements and Labor Supply 2016Social constraints and women's education: Evidence from Afghanistan under radical religious rule 2018RELIGIONS, FERTILITY, AND GROWTH IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 2013Communication and marketing of services by religious organizations in India 2013Trust, child care technology choice and female labor force participation

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.