Ready to stop: Socioeconomic status and the fertility transition in Stockholm, 1878-1926
(2016) In Economic History Review 69(2). p.679-704- Abstract
- The western fertility decline is arguably the most significant demographic change to have occurred in the past 200 years, yet its causes and processes are still shrouded in ambiguity due to a lack of individual-level longitudinal data. A growing body of research has helped improve our understanding of the decline's causes by examining the development of socioeconomic differences in fertility using historical micro-data, but these have largely only considered rural areas where fertility was generally slower to decline. This article contributes to the literature by utilizing individual-level data from the Roteman Database for Stockholm, Sweden between 1878 and 1926 to examine the association of socioeconomic status and fertility and the... (More)
- The western fertility decline is arguably the most significant demographic change to have occurred in the past 200 years, yet its causes and processes are still shrouded in ambiguity due to a lack of individual-level longitudinal data. A growing body of research has helped improve our understanding of the decline's causes by examining the development of socioeconomic differences in fertility using historical micro-data, but these have largely only considered rural areas where fertility was generally slower to decline. This article contributes to the literature by utilizing individual-level data from the Roteman Database for Stockholm, Sweden between 1878 and 1926 to examine the association of socioeconomic status and fertility and the adoption of stopping behaviour during the city's transition. Using piecewise constant hazard models and logistic regression, we find that a clear class pattern arises in which the elite were early practitioners of fertility control, followed by the working classes. As the transition unfolded, socioeconomic differences in stopping behaviour disappeared and overall fertility differentials were also minimized, both of them being consistent with patterns observed in rural populations. The implications of these findings for major explanations of the decline are discussed in the concluding section. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8302815
- author
- Molitoris, Joseph LU and Dribe, Martin LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2016
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Economic History Review
- volume
- 69
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 679 - 704
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:84954525239
- wos:000374696500011
- ISSN
- 1468-0289
- DOI
- 10.1111/ehr.12275
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 985c14c1-9fcb-434d-a888-e56f5bccb747 (old id 8302815)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 13:04:24
- date last changed
- 2022-04-24 02:33:15
@article{985c14c1-9fcb-434d-a888-e56f5bccb747,
abstract = {{The western fertility decline is arguably the most significant demographic change to have occurred in the past 200 years, yet its causes and processes are still shrouded in ambiguity due to a lack of individual-level longitudinal data. A growing body of research has helped improve our understanding of the decline's causes by examining the development of socioeconomic differences in fertility using historical micro-data, but these have largely only considered rural areas where fertility was generally slower to decline. This article contributes to the literature by utilizing individual-level data from the Roteman Database for Stockholm, Sweden between 1878 and 1926 to examine the association of socioeconomic status and fertility and the adoption of stopping behaviour during the city's transition. Using piecewise constant hazard models and logistic regression, we find that a clear class pattern arises in which the elite were early practitioners of fertility control, followed by the working classes. As the transition unfolded, socioeconomic differences in stopping behaviour disappeared and overall fertility differentials were also minimized, both of them being consistent with patterns observed in rural populations. The implications of these findings for major explanations of the decline are discussed in the concluding section.}},
author = {{Molitoris, Joseph and Dribe, Martin}},
issn = {{1468-0289}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{679--704}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Economic History Review}},
title = {{Ready to stop: Socioeconomic status and the fertility transition in Stockholm, 1878-1926}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ehr.12275}},
doi = {{10.1111/ehr.12275}},
volume = {{69}},
year = {{2016}},
}