Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

计量经济分析 = Econometric analysis

A Treatise on the Family. G. S. Becker. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1981. Gary Becker is one of the most famous and influential economists of the second half of the 20th century, a fervent contributor to and expounder of the University of Chicago free-market philosophy, and winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in economics. Although any book with the word "treatise" in its title is clearly intended to have an impact, one coming from someone as brilliant and controversial as Becker certainly had such a lofty goal. It has received many article-length reviews in several disciplines (Ben-Porath, 1982; Bergmann, 1995; Foster, 1993; Hannan, 1982), which is one measure of its scholarly importance, and yet its impact is, I think, less than it may have initially appeared, especially for scholars with substantive interests in the family. This book is, its title notwithstanding, more about economics and the economic approach to behavior than about the family. In the first sentence of the preface, Becker writes "In this book, I develop an economic or rational choice approach to the family." Lest anyone accuse him of focusing on traditional (i.e., material) economics topics, such as family income, poverty, and labor supply, he immediately emphasizes that those topics are not his focus. "My intent is more ambitious: to analyze marriage, births, divorce, division of labor in households, prestige, and other non-material behavior with the tools and framework developed for material behavior." Indeed, the book includes chapters on many of these issues. One chapter examines the principles of the efficient division of labor in households, three analyze marriage and divorce, three analyze various child-related issues (fertility and intergenerational mobility), and others focus on broader family issues, such as intrafamily resource allocation. His analysis is not, he believes, constrained by time or place. His intention is "to present a comprehensive analysis that is applicable, at least in part, to families in the past as well as the present, in primitive as well as modern societies, and in Eastern as well as Western cultures." His tone is profoundly conservative and utterly skeptical of any constructive role for government programs. There is a clear sense of how much better things were in the old days of a genderbased division of labor and low market-work rates for married women. Indeed, Becker is ready and able to show in Chapter 2 that such a state of affairs was efficient and induced not by market or societal discrimination (although he allows that it might exist) but by small underlying household productivity differences that arise primarily from what he refers to as "complementarities" between caring for young children while carrying another to term. Most family scholars would probably find that an unconvincingly simple explanation for a profound and complex phenomenon. What, then, is the salient contribution of Treatise on the Family? It is not literally the idea that economics could be applied to the nonmarket sector and to family life because Becker had already established that with considerable success and influence. At its core, microeconomics is simple, characterized by a belief in the importance of prices and markets, the role of self-interested or rational behavior, and, somewhat less centrally, the stability of preferences. It was Becker's singular and invaluable contribution to appreciate that the behaviors potentially amenable to the economic approach were not limited to phenomenon with explicit monetary prices and formal markets. Indeed, during the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, he did undeniably important and pioneering work extending the domain of economics to such topics as labor market discrimination, fertility, crime, human capital, household production, and the allocation of time. Nor is Becker's contribution the detailed analyses themselves. Many of them are, frankly, odd, idiosyncratic, and off-putting. …

A Treatise on the Family

This survey of sexual practices in the United States has been combed by the media for items of interest to the public: monogamous sex is much more widespread in this country than has been thought; infidelity is less frequent than presumed; vaginal intercourse is the defining experience of heterosexual behavior; watching one's partner undress is stimulating to many people; married couples have more sex than single people (unmarried, cohabiting couples have the most sex of all); the majority of couples experience sex twice a week to several times a month; 2.8% of men identify themselves as homosexual and 1.4% of women do so, but a higher percentage of people consider a same-gender experience to have some appeal; 75% of men always experience orgasm compared with 28.6% of women, but more nearly equal numbers of men and women declare themselves satisfied with their sexual experiences. The book is, in fact, a

The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States

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The Precariat. The New Dangerous Class

Our research objective was to systematise the existing literature on the relation between fertility and women’s employment at the micro-level. Instead of carrying out a traditional literature review, we conducted a meta-analysis. This allowed us to compare estimates from different studies standardised for the country analysed, the method applied, control variables used and sample selected. We focused on two effects: the impact of work on fertility and the impact of young children on employment entry. First, we found a high variation in the studied effects among the institutional settings, reflecting the existence of a north–south gradient. Second, we observed a significant change in the effects over time. Finally, we demonstrated that a failure to account for the respondent’s social background, partner and job characteristics tends to produce a bias in the estimated effects.

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Fertility and Women’s Employment: A Meta-analysis

We examine the likelihood of becoming a parent in Italy taking into account the employment (in) stability of both partners in a couple. We use data from four waves of the Italian section of the EU- ...

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Whose Job Instability Affects the Likelihood of Becoming a Parent in Italy? A Tale of two Partners

Does gender equality matter for fertility? Demographic findings on this issue are rather inconclusive We argue that one reason for this is that the complexity of the concept of gender equality has received insufficient attention Gender equality needs to be conceptualized in a manner that goes beyond perceiving it as mere “sameness of distribution” It needs to include notions of gender equity and thus to allow for distinguishing between gender difference and gender inequality We sketch three dimensions of gender equality related to employment, financial resources, and family work, which incorporate this understanding: (1) the ability to maintain a household; (2) agency and the capability to choose; and (3) gender equity in household and care work We explore their impact on childbearing intentions of women and men using the European Generations and Gender Surveys Our results confirm the need for a more nuanced notion of gender equality in studies on the relationship between gender equality on fertility They show that there is no uniform effect of gender equality on childbearing intentions, but that the impact varies by gender and by parity

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Gender Equality and Fertility: Which Equality Matters?

This article compares fertility intentions and realization in France (2005-2008) and in Italy (2003-2007), two countries with contrasting fertility models, using comparable data from the longitudinal Generations and Gender Surveys (GGS). Four main findings are presented. First, the strong predictive power of negative fertility intentions and, conversely, the fact that positive intentions overestimate actual outcomes, are highlighted. The comparison then reveals an important difference: the proportion of couples who realized their positive fertility intentions was systematically higher in France and, for those who did not intend to have a child, the proportion who went on to have one was also higher. Alongside the classic effects of age and number of children, socioeconomic factors play an important role, and less favourable situations appear to hinder the realization of intentions. The determinants of intentions are not all identical, however, and there is no single model that applies to both countries: the role of context remains primordial. Last, among couples who did not realize their intentions, some had postponed their childbearing plans while others had abandoned them altogether. Here too, the determinants are not the same in both countries. In this respect, the distinction between those who postpone and those who forego, rarely made in the literature, is an interesting question. Abstract: Cet article confronte intentions de fecondite et realisation en France (2005-2008) et en Italie (2003-2007), pays ou les modeles de fecondite sont contrastes, en s'appuyant sur des donnees comparables issues du programme d'enquete longitudinale Generations and Gender Survey (GGS). Quatre principaux resultats ressortent. Le fort pouvoir predictif des intentions negatives de fecondite et, a l'inverse, le fait que les intentions positives surestiment les comportements sont d'abord mis en evidence. La comparaison met ensuite en lumiere une difference importante : la proportion de couples realisant leurs intentions positives de fecondite est systematiquement plus elevee en France et, lorsqu'ils n'avaient pas l'intention d'avoir un enfant, la proportion de ceux en ayant eu un est egalement superieure. Outre l'effet classique de l'âge et du nombre d'enfants, les facteurs socioeconomiques jouent un role important, les situations moins favorables apparaissant comme un obstacle a la realisation des intentions. Les determinants des intentions ne sont cependant pas tous identiques et il n'existe pas un unique modele transposable d'un pays a l'autre : le role du contexte reste central. Enfin, lorsque les couples n'ont pas realise leurs intentions, certains ont reporte leur projet tandis que d'autres y ont renonce. Les determinants sont cependant differents selon le pays considere. La distinction entre renoncement et ajournement, rarement faite dans les etudes, s'avere de ce point de vue interessante. Abstract: Este articulo confronta las intenciones de fecundidad y su realizacion en France (2005-2008) y en Italia (2003-2007), paises con modelos de fecundidad contrastados, sobre la base de datos comparables provenientes de la Encuesta longitudinal Generations and Gender Survey (GGS). Cuatro resultados principales se destacan. En primer lugar, se pone en evidencia el fuerte poder predictivo de las intenciones negativas e inversamente el hecho de que las intenciones positivas sobrestiman los comportamientos. La comparacion entre los dos paises pone tambien de manifiesto una diferencia importante: la proporcion de parejas que realizan sus intenciones positivas de fecundidad es sistematicamente plus elevada en Francia y, cuando no tenian la intencion de tener un hijo, la proporcion de las que lo han tenido es tambien mas elevada. Ademas del efecto clasico de la edad y del numero de hijos, los factores socioeconomicos juegan un papel importante y las situaciones menos favorables aparecen como un obstaculo a la realizacion de las intenciones. Sin embargo, los determinantes de las intenciones no son todos identicos y no existe un modelo unico transportable de un pais al otro: el rol del contexto es central. En fin, cuando las parejas no han realizado sus intenciones, ciertas de ellas han diferido su proyecto mientras que otras han renunciado a el. Pero los determinantes son diferentes de un pais al otro. La distincion entre renunciamiento y aplazamiento, que los estudios hacen raramente, se revela interesante desde este punto de vista.

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Fertility Intentions and Obstacles to Their Realization in France and Italy

A large number of empirical studies have investigated the effects of women's education on union dissolution in Europe, but results have varied substantially. This paper seeks to assess the relationship between educational attainment and the incidence of marital disruption by systematizing the existing empirical evidence. A quantitative literature review (a meta-analysis) was conducted to investigate the temporal change in the relationship, net of inter-study differences. The results point to a weakening of the positive educational gradient in marital disruption over time and even to a reversal in the direction of this gradient in some countries. The findings also show that the change in the educational gradient can be linked to an increase in access to divorce. Finally, the results suggest that women's empowerment has played an important role in changing the educational gradient, while the liberalization of divorce laws has not.

Daniele Vignoli

Papers

Fertility and Women’s Employment: A Meta-analysis

Whose Job Instability Affects the Likelihood of Becoming a Parent in Italy? A Tale of two Partners

Gender Equality and Fertility: Which Equality Matters?

Fertility Intentions and Obstacles to Their Realization in France and Italy

The educational gradient in marital disruption: A meta-analysis of European research findings