Micro-level relationships between union formation or dissolution and childbearing have implications for fertility that have not been thoroughly examined. In this paper, we suggest that these relationships comprise an 'engine' that produces variation and change around replacement level fertility....

Family patterns in Western countries have substantially changed across the 1940 to 1990 birth cohorts. Adults born more recently enter more often unmarried cohabitations and marry later, if at all. They have children later and fewer of them; births take place in a non-marital union more often...

Family dynamics are changing in Europe, but only few studies investigate how cohort completed fertility is affected by partnership behaviours and how this has changed over time. We use microsimulation techniques to investigate the effect of the increasing prevalence of union dissolution on...