Precarious baby plans? Examining the impact of economic circumstances on childbearing intentions of German men and women

Claudia Geist, University of Utah
Sarah R. Brauner-Otto, Mississippi State University

Examining the sensitivity of childbearing plans to changes in economic circumstances is crucial to understanding how global and regional economic crises may affect the demographic future of low fertility countries. Using two waves of the German PAIRFAM panel data for young adults who were age 25-27 and 35-37 at the time of the first interview, we examine how unemployment and earnings loss affects fertility plans in German men and women. We assess the role of economic circumstances for both single and coupled men and women. We further examine the gendered meaning of employment and earnings changes by investigating the impact of economic changes in both partners in a couple. We take advantage of the longitudinal data structure by using fixed effects models, to account for unobserved stable characteristics of respondents and their partners.