LABFER is the first project that will comprehensively describe and evaluate fertility consequences of the unprecedented changes in the labour market, caused by digitalisation and globalisation.
These changes have been taking place during the last three decades and intensified after the Great Recession.
They are reflected in: rising demand for skills, massive worker displacement, spread of new work arrangements, increasing work demands and growing inequalities in labour market prospects between the low-and-medium and the highly skilled. They are likely driving the post-crisis fertility decline in the most advanced nations, which is to date not understood.
LABFER has four main objectives:
1) to study the impact of the ongoing labour market change on fertility (macro-level);
2) to examine the individual-level mechanisms behind the observed macro-level fertility effects of the ongoing labour market
change;
3) to investigate the role of the growing inequalities between the low-and-medium and the highly skilled for the relative
fertility patterns of the two groups;
4) to study the role of family and employment policies in moderating the fertility effects of the labour market change.
Our methodological approach is innovative. We will link data at several layers of observation (country, region, industry, firm,
couple and individual) to account for the policy, work and family context of childbearing. We will also use novel labour market
measures to capture the ongoing labour market change. Mixture cure models will be employed to separate the effects of
covariates on birth timing and probability that the birth occurs.