Fertility From a Couple Perspective: A Test of Competing Decision Rules on Proceptive Behaviour
Fertility From a Couple Perspective: A Test of Competing Decision Rules on Proceptive Behaviour
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DOI：
10.1093/esr/jcr095
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发表时间：
2013-06-01
影响因子：
3.2
通讯作者：
Kneip, Thorsten
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bauer, Gerrit;Kneip, Thorsten
生育决定通常涉及两个人。这就提出了这样一个问题：个人对更多孩子的渴望或偏好如何转化为共同行动。以前的研究对这个问题提出了不同的方法，强调性别、联合效用、共识或讨价还价能力。我们使用德国家庭小组(PIIRFAM)的数据来检验文献中发现的相互矛盾的假说。我们的结果表明，夫妻双方的愿望和对孩子的预期效用对促进行为的影响是对称的，这表明女性和男性本身都不会主导生育决定。相反，重要的是联合公用事业。只有在另一个孩子的效用预期损失非常大的情况下，一方才会行使否决权。当合作伙伴有相反的愿望时，由于有利的合作伙伴市场条件而产生的讨价还价能力可以在将自己的意愿强加给合作伙伴方面发挥关键作用。
Fertility decisions typically involve two persons. This raises the question of how individual desires or preferences for further children transform into joint action. Previous research has proposed different approaches to this question, emphasizing gender, joint utility, consensus, or bargaining power. We use data from the German Family Panel (pairfam) to test competing hypotheses found in the literature. Our results show symmetrical effects of both partners' desires and expected utilities for children on proceptive behaviour, indicating that neither women nor men dominate fertility decisions per se. Instead, it is joint utility that matters. One partner will exercise a 'veto' only if the expected loss of utility from a further child is very high. When partners have opposed desires, bargaining power due to advantageous partner market conditions can play a pivotal role for imposing one's will on the partner.