title: Desired and excess fertility in Europe and the United States: indirect estimates from World Fertility Survey data.
abstract: This paper presents indirect estimates of desired family size and unwanted births for married and cohabiting women in 12 European countries and the US.  An econometric model for censored discrete data is used to estimate the distribution of desired family size from individual observations on children ever-born and total expected births.  The data are from the UNECE Comparative Fertility Study of WFS surveys for Europe and the US and originated in national surveys between April 1975-December 1979.  Estimates of the bivariate distribution of cumulative and desired fertility are used to compute the proportion of women with excess fertility and the average number of unwanted births for each country.  The indirect estimates are compared with those from an analysis of survey responses to questions about desired and unwanted births.  Multivariate modes that control for the effects of marriage duration, age at marriage, education, employment status, work experience, and total family income are also reported.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Calhoun
mesh_terms: D000569:Americas; D001723:Birth Rate; D003710:Demography; D019049:Developed Countries; D004467:Economics; D005060:Europe; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005298:Fertility; D017533:Marital Status; D008393:Marriage; D018803:Models, Economic; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009656:North America; D011153:Population; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011275:Pregnancy, Unwanted; D012106:Research; D012107:Research Design; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014481:United States
keywords: Americas; Birth Rate; Demographic Factors; Developed Countries; Economic Factors; Economic Model; Estimation Technics; Europe; Family And Household; Family Characteristics; Family Size; Family Size, Desired; Fertility; Fertility Measurements; Fertility Rate; Fertility Surveys; Indirect Estimation Technics; Marital Status; Marriage; Marriage Duration; Measurement; Models, Theoretical; North America; Northern America; Nuptiality; Population; Population Dynamics; Pregnancy, Unwanted; Reproductive Behavior; Research Methodology; Socioeconomic Factors; United States; World Fertility Surveys