Educational Differences, Value of Children and Fertility Outcomes in Germany

Abstract

Referring to the dependence of income and occupational opportunities on education as well as to the lower compatibility between career and parenthood for women, educational differences of family foundation rates are being interpreted as an expression of different opportunity costs by many researchers (opportunity cost hypothesis). This hypothesis is discussed and analysed in this article for the German case drawing on the German Family Survey (Familiensurvey). The analysis considers two aspects of fertility motivation: on the one hand, it refers to educational level and the perceived value of children for (potential) parents; on the other, it examines the behavioural relevance of these fertility motivations. The empirical results from national representative longitudinal data question the opportunity cost hypothesis. Neither the perception of the incompatibility between career and motherhood nor its effect on the desire to become a parent are stronger for more highly educated women than for women with a lower formal educational level. Moreover, the article provides empirical evidence that the well-known educational differentiation of family formation rates is associated with child-related utility expectations, such as stimulation and affect.

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