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Does Having Children Bring Life Satisfaction in Europe?

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Abstract

This study investigates the effect of having children on parents’ life satisfaction and happiness in Europe. We utilize four waves of the European Values Survey (EVS) from 1981 to 2008. To identify causality, we use instrumental variables estimation. We exploit time and country level variation in five family policies as instruments for having children. For parents who have had children due to the generosity of family policies, having children increases parent’s life satisfaction by 0.33–0.41 points on a 10 point scale. This effect is significantly more pronounced when parents are over the age of 50. Yet, children’s effects on life satisfaction and happiness is negative for single and full-time working parents. The positive effect of having children on life satisfaction and happiness has substantially eroded over the EVS waves which explains the reductions in the fertility rate in Europe.

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Notes

  1. The results are robust to different age thresholds such as parents older than 55, 60 and 65 years old.

  2. The results are robust to different age thresholds such as parents younger than 23, 22, 21 and 20 years old.

  3. 43% (full time) + 7% (part-time) + 6% (self-employed) + 21% (retired) + 5% (unemployed).

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  1. Social Sciences University of Ankara, Hukumet Meydanı No:2, Ulus, Ankara, Turkey

    Zeynep B. Ugur

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  1. Zeynep B. Ugur
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Correspondence to Zeynep B. Ugur.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 8, 9, 10 and 11.

Table 8 Oprobit estimates of subjective wellbeing indicators
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Table 9 Pooled OLS estimates of subjective wellbeing indicators
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Table 10 Pooled OLS estimates of subjective wellbeing indicators
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Table 11 IV Regression results
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Ugur, Z.B. Does Having Children Bring Life Satisfaction in Europe?. J Happiness Stud 21, 1385–1406 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00135-5

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