How persistent and universal has the two child family ideal been in Europe during the last three decades? We analyse … nearly universal among women in all parts of Europe. Countries that used to display higher ideal family size have converged … very similar in different regions. The mean ideal family size has become relatively closely clustered around 2.2 in most …

A large number of pairs of countries exhibit a dynamic pattern in which: (i) Fertility in both countries declines … across time; (ii) Initially one country has higher fertility and lower per-capita income compared to the other; (iii) In time …, as per-capita income converges, fertility rates in the poorer country become lower than in the richer one.This paper …