Reproductive Decision-Making in a Macro-Micro Perspective

This book provides new insights into the significant gap that currently exists between desired and actual fertility in Europe. It examines how people make decisions about having children and demonstrates how the macro-level environment affects micro-level decision-making.

Written by an international team of leading demographers and psychologists, the book presents the theoretical and methodological developments of a three-year, European Commission-funded project named REPRO (Reproductive Decision-Making in a Macro-Micro Perspective). It also provides an overview of the research conducted by REPRO researchers both during and after the project.

The book examines fertility intentions from quantitative and qualitative perspectives, demonstrates how the macro-level environment affects micro-level decision-making, and offers a multi-level analysis of fertility-related norms across Europe.

Overall, this book offers insight into how people make decisions to have children, when they are most likely to act on their decisions, and how different social and policy settings affect their decisions and actions. It will appeal to researchers, graduate students, and policy advisors with an interest in fertility, demography, and life-course decision making.

• Attitudes to childbearing
• Birth rates
• Demography of the life course
• Europe
• Family policy
• Fertility studies
• Fertility trends
• Human fertility
• Macro-Micro
• Social indicators
• sexual behaviour

“The chapters, along with the other outcomes of the REPRO project, systematically study fertility decision formation and realization. It is, therefore, a valuable source of knowledge and inspiration for other researchers or more advanced students of demography, sociology, and population sciences. Policymakers can also benefit from reading the book, as it increases understanding of how to help people realize their fertility plans, and thus to potentially increase low fertility.” (Zuzana Žilinčíková, Canadian Population Society, Vol. 44 (3-4), 2017)

“Reproductive Decision-Making in a Macro–Micro Perspective is an edited volume … that focuses on the gap between the desired number of children and actual fertility in a large number of European countries. … Reproductive Decision-Making is worth reading for those interested in family demography, from demographers and sociologists to policy makers, who want to become familiar with the REPRO project. All chapters are interesting in their own right and demonstrate various ways to analyse reproductive decision-making.” (Paul P. P. Rotering, European Journal of Population, Vol. 31, 2015)

• Wittgenstein Ctr for Demography and Human Capital, Vienna Institute of Demography, Vienna, Austria

  Dimiter Philipov

• Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands

  Aart C. Liefbroer

• Dondena Centre for Research on Social Dynamics, Centre for Arts, Science and Knowledge, University Bocconi, Milan, Italy

  Jane E. Klobas