Socio-economic resources, policy changes and the transition to the second child: are cohabiting and married parents similar?

Trude Lappegård, Statistics Norway
Kari Skrede, Statistics Norway

In this paper we study how socio-economic resources and policy changes affects transition to second birth among couples with the first (common) child born between 1987 and 1997. The dataset contains longitudinal information of the further family development until 2002 for all parental couples in an intact union, and until year of dissolution of union for parents that have dissolved their union prior to that date. We will examine the relationship between second-birth rate and parental characteristics at time of first birth (age, earlier childbirths, education, marital status), as well as time varying covariates after birth of first child (income, breadwinning arrangement, further engagement in education), as well as (for cohabiting parents), possible transition to marraige. We will also examine possible effects of policy changes during the period; in particular the considerable extension of the parental leave in 1993 and the introduction of the cash for care benefit in 1997.