It Takes Two to Tango: Couples' Happiness and Childbearing
It Takes Two to Tango: Couples' Happiness and Childbearing
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DOI：
10.1007/s10680-016-9385-1
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发表时间：
2016-08-01
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Balbo, Nicoletta
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Aassve, Arnstein;Arpino, Bruno;Balbo, Nicoletta
现有文献迄今为止只考虑了个人主观幸福感对生育能力的作用，而忽视了伴侣幸福感的重要性。利用英国家庭小组调查（BHPS）的数据和按平等分别估计的事件历史模型，我们发现，在一对夫妇中，就生第一个孩子而言，女性的幸福感比男性的幸福感更重要。具体来说，我们观察到，夫妻中任何一方比平时更快乐的夫妇生第一个孩子的风险更大，但女方越快乐，这种影响就越强。对于生育第二个孩子的过渡，我们发现女方声称比平时更快乐或更不快乐的夫妇生育的风险更低。此外，我们还发现伴侣的主观幸福感对生育第一个孩子的决定具有倍增效应。我们的研究结果表明，如果不承认双方的主观幸福感对生育的内在共同决策很重要，就会导致对主观幸福感如何影响生育的不完整看法。
The existing literature has so far considered the role of the individual's subjective well-being on fertility, neglecting the importance of the partner's well-being. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and event history models estimated separately by parity, we find that in a couple, women's happiness matters more than that of the male partner in terms of having the first child. Specifically, we observe that couples in which either partner is happier than usual are more at risk of having the first child, but the effect is stronger with higher happiness of the woman. For the transition to the second child, we find that couples in which the woman declares to be happier or less happy than usual have a lower risk of childbirth. We, moreover, find support for a multiplicative effect of partners' SWB on the decision to have a first child. Our results show that failing to acknowledge that the subjective well-being of both partners matters for the inherently joint decision making of childbearing can lead to an incomplete view of how subjective well-being affects fertility.