Female Education and the Second Child: Great Britain and Western Germany Compared

This paper compares the determinants of the transition to the second child in western Germany and Great Britain, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). We test a number of explanations for the positive effect of educational attainment on second birth risks; this effect has been reported for both countries. Owing to differences in the welfare state context, we expect that the factors responsible for the positive education effect differ between the two countries. Our findings, however, provide only partial support for this expectation.