title: Agency in Fertility Decisions in Western Europe During the Demographic Transition: A Comparative Perspective.
abstract: We use a set of linked reproductive histories taken from Sweden, the Netherlands, and Spain for the period 1871-1960 to address key issues regarding how reproductive change was linked specifically to mortality and survivorship and more generally to individual agency. Using event-history analysis, this study investigates how the propensity to have additional children was influenced by the number of surviving offspring when reproductive decisions were made. The results suggest that couples were continuously regulating their fertility to achieve reproductive goals. Families experiencing child fatalities show significant increases in the hazard of additional births. In addition, the sex composition of the surviving sibset also appears to have influenced reproductive decisions in a significant but changing way. The findings offer strong proof of active decision-making during the demographic transition and provide an important contribution to the literature on the role of mortality for reproductive change.
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Estudios Población y Sociedad (GEPS), Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: David Sven
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Reher
authors.affiliation: Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies and the Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research (CEDAR), Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. glenn.sandstrom@umu.se.
authors.forename: Glenn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sandström
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Estudios Población y Sociedad (GEPS), Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sanz-Gimeno
authors.affiliation: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)/Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), The Hague, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Frans W A
authors.initials: FWA
authors.lastname: van Poppel
mesh_terms: D001723:Birth Rate / Q000639:trends*; D002648:Child; D046688:Child Mortality / Q000266:history* / Q000639:trends; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005191:Family Characteristics / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D011157:Population Dynamics / Q000266:history* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017584:Reproductive History; D012744:Sex Ratio; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Demographic transition; Europe; Fertility; Mortality; Sex-preferences