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Happy People Have Children: Choice and Self-Selection into Parenthood

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Abstract

There is mixed evidence in the existing literature on whether children are associated with greater subjective well-being, with the correlation depending on which countries and populations are considered. We here provide a systematic analysis of this question based on three different datasets: two cross-national and one national panel. We show that the association between children and subjective well-being is positive only in developed countries, and for those who become parents after the age of 30 and who have higher income. We also provide evidence of a positive selection into parenthood, whereby happier individuals are more likely to have children.

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Notes

  1. A number of high-GDP countries appear below the fitted line. Dropping the top 5 % countries by GDP leads to a fitted line that is steeper and more significant, reinforcing our conclusion that the correlation between children and subjective well-being is more positive in richer countries. Without these high-GDP countries, the relationship between children and well-being turns positive at a GDP level of around 15,000 dollars. We investigate again the possibility of an inverted U-shape and find that the coefficient of GDP-squared is negative and significant at the 1 % level. The GDP threshold to obtain a positive relationship between children and the Cantril ladder now stands at 10,000 dollars..

  2. Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, South-East Asia, South Asia, and East Asia except Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Israel.

  3. European Union, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Cyprus, US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Israel, Australia and New Zealand.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Letizia Mencarini for encouragement and Romina Boarini for help with the data. Three anonymous referees provided extremely helpful comments that helped us make our arguments clearer. We thank CEPREMAP for financial support as well as the French National Research Agency, through the program Investissements d’Avenir, ANR-10-LABX_93-01. Support from CEPREMAP, the US National Institute on Aging (Grant R01AG040640), the John Templeton Foundation and the What Works Centre for Wellbeing is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. PSE, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, 75014, Paris, France

    Sophie Cetre

  2. PSE and CNRS, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, 75014, Paris, France

    Andrew E. Clark

  3. Université Paris-Sorbonne and PSE, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, 75014, Paris, France

    Claudia Senik

Authors
  1. Sophie Cetre
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  2. Andrew E. Clark
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  3. Claudia Senik
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sophie Cetre.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.

Table 6 Gallup, summary statistics, all countries, ages 30–50
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Table 7 ESS, summary statistics, all 16 European Countries, all ages
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Table 8 ESS, summary statistics, all 16 European Countries, ages 30–50
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Table 9 German SOEP, summary statistics, all ages
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Table 10 Children by age categories. German SOEP data
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Table 11 Children by age categories. ESS data
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Table 12 Children by income quintiles. German SOEP data
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Table 13 Children by income quintiles. ESS data
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Table 14 Summary statistics for the sample used to study selection into parenthood. German SOEP data
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Table 15 Composition of the sample used to study selection into parenthood. German SOEP data
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Cetre, S., Clark, A.E. & Senik, C. Happy People Have Children: Choice and Self-Selection into Parenthood. Eur J Population 32, 445–473 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-016-9389-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-016-9389-x

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