Policy interventions that increase insurance coverage for infertility treatments may affect fertility trends, and ultimately, population age structures. However, such policies have ignored the overall impact of coverage on fertility. We examine short-term and long-term effects of increased...

The rise in the average age of women bearing their first child is a well-established demographic trend in recent decades. Postponed childbearing can have important consequences for the mother and, at a macro level, for the country as a whole. Research has focused on the effect postponing...

This thesis consists of two papers dealing with fertility in Sweden. In paper [1] we discuss possible explanations for the variation in the Swedish fertility. We are primarily interested in economic and social conditions and their impact on the total fertility rate between 1965 and 2003. The...

The purpose of this study is to analyze if economic and social conditions <p> have any impact on the number of children born by women in <p> Sweden. The results support (not surprisingly) a negative correlation between <p> women’s working experience and number of children. The results <p> do also support...</p></p></p></p>

The rise in the average age of women bearing their first child is a well-established demographic trend in recent decades. Postponed childbearing can have important consequences for the mother and, at a macro level, for the country as a whole. Research has focused on the effect postponing...

This paper investigates the role of intergenerational social mobility in completed fertility of women born between 1948 and 1972 in Poland. It examines the hypothesis of acculturation, which implies that fertility of the mobiles will be in between that seen in their parents’ (origin) and their...

We assess the labour supply effects of two 'making work pay' reforms in Germany. We provide evidence in favour of policies that distinguish between low effort and low productivity by targeting individuals with low wages rather than individuals with low earnings. In assessing the policies we...

This work aims to identify the determinants of health care utilization in Portugal and to quantify their effects. A clear idea about this may help the policy debate on the delivery and organization of health services. Toward this end, we developed an approach based on count data models. We found...

Using standard as well as recently developed univariate and bivariate count data models, this paper analyzes the determinants of workplace accidents using a firm data set for Germany. Given the tight system of public workplace safety regulation, introduced partly as early as in 1869, and the...

This paper investigates gender differences in smoking behavior using data from the German Socio-economic Panel (SOEP). We develop a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method for count data models which allows to isolate the part of the gender differential in the number of cigarettes daily smoked that...