Family policies, childbearing, and economic crisis: The case of Iceland
Background : In the early 2000s, Iceland implemented one of the most gender-equal parental leave systems in the world, and at the same time increased the volume of public childcare. A few years later, in 2008, Iceland experienced a major economic crises that, among other things, lead to cutbacks in...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:448b7648cc6841f6914e33231825fa4f 2023-05-15T16:45:07+02:00 Family policies, childbearing, and economic crisis: The case of Iceland Ari Klængur Jónsson 2018-09-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2018.39.19 https://doaj.org/article/448b7648cc6841f6914e33231825fa4f EN eng Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol39/19/ https://doaj.org/toc/1435-9871 1435-9871 doi:10.4054/DemRes.2018.39.19 https://doaj.org/article/448b7648cc6841f6914e33231825fa4f Demographic Research, Vol 39, p 19 (2018) economic crisis fertility gender equality Iceland parental leave social policies standardized birth rates Demography. Population. Vital events HB848-3697 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2018.39.19 2022-12-31T03:06:15Z Background : In the early 2000s, Iceland implemented one of the most gender-equal parental leave systems in the world, and at the same time increased the volume of public childcare. A few years later, in 2008, Iceland experienced a major economic crises that, among other things, lead to cutbacks in governmental spending and decreased support to families with children. Objective : The objective of this study is to provide insight into recent childbearing dynamics in Iceland and how they may be linked to recent social-policy reforms and the intervention of the economic crisis in 2008. Methods : We use official individual longitudinal register data covering the total female population born in Iceland between 1953 and 1997. We analyse the data by means of event history techniques. Results : We find that changes in the standardized birth rates coincide with the emergence of the reformed family-policy package: A declining trend in the age-standardized first-birth rate came to a halt, and the propensity to have a second and a third child increased. After the onset of the crisis, a trend of decreasing first-birth intensities reemerged and, in 2011, a turnaround to declining second- and third-birth rates. Conclusions : The development in the post-2008 period indicates that even in the most gender-equal settings, the gender balance in family care is still vulnerable, and that family policies cannot compensate in full for the impact of economic crisis on fertility. Contribution : The study highlights the interdependency of factors related to both social policy and the business cycle in relation to childbearing developments. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Demographic Research 39 561 592 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English |
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economic crisis fertility gender equality Iceland parental leave social policies standardized birth rates Demography. Population. Vital events HB848-3697 |
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economic crisis fertility gender equality Iceland parental leave social policies standardized birth rates Demography. Population. Vital events HB848-3697 Ari Klængur Jónsson Family policies, childbearing, and economic crisis: The case of Iceland |
topic_facet |
economic crisis fertility gender equality Iceland parental leave social policies standardized birth rates Demography. Population. Vital events HB848-3697 |
description |
Background : In the early 2000s, Iceland implemented one of the most gender-equal parental leave systems in the world, and at the same time increased the volume of public childcare. A few years later, in 2008, Iceland experienced a major economic crises that, among other things, lead to cutbacks in governmental spending and decreased support to families with children. Objective : The objective of this study is to provide insight into recent childbearing dynamics in Iceland and how they may be linked to recent social-policy reforms and the intervention of the economic crisis in 2008. Methods : We use official individual longitudinal register data covering the total female population born in Iceland between 1953 and 1997. We analyse the data by means of event history techniques. Results : We find that changes in the standardized birth rates coincide with the emergence of the reformed family-policy package: A declining trend in the age-standardized first-birth rate came to a halt, and the propensity to have a second and a third child increased. After the onset of the crisis, a trend of decreasing first-birth intensities reemerged and, in 2011, a turnaround to declining second- and third-birth rates. Conclusions : The development in the post-2008 period indicates that even in the most gender-equal settings, the gender balance in family care is still vulnerable, and that family policies cannot compensate in full for the impact of economic crisis on fertility. Contribution : The study highlights the interdependency of factors related to both social policy and the business cycle in relation to childbearing developments. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ari Klængur Jónsson |
author_facet |
Ari Klængur Jónsson |
author_sort |
Ari Klængur Jónsson |
title |
Family policies, childbearing, and economic crisis: The case of Iceland |
title_short |
Family policies, childbearing, and economic crisis: The case of Iceland |
title_full |
Family policies, childbearing, and economic crisis: The case of Iceland |
title_fullStr |
Family policies, childbearing, and economic crisis: The case of Iceland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Family policies, childbearing, and economic crisis: The case of Iceland |
title_sort |
family policies, childbearing, and economic crisis: the case of iceland |
publisher |
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2018.39.19 https://doaj.org/article/448b7648cc6841f6914e33231825fa4f |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Demographic Research, Vol 39, p 19 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol39/19/ https://doaj.org/toc/1435-9871 1435-9871 doi:10.4054/DemRes.2018.39.19 https://doaj.org/article/448b7648cc6841f6914e33231825fa4f |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2018.39.19 |
container_title |
Demographic Research |
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39 |
container_start_page |
561 |
op_container_end_page |
592 |
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1766035328931463168 |