Transitions to the first birth in four European metropolises

Anita Abramowska-Kmon, Warsaw School of Economics
Irena E. Kotowska, Warsaw School of Economics

A fertility decline and postponement of childbearing, to be experienced in Europe, is often attributed to prolongation of women’s education and their growing involvement in the labour market as well as a rising job instability. To show how the mother’s education and the employment status affect a risk of having a first child among women representing the most modern group of the population, the event history modelling has been used for comparative analyses in four European cities (Rome, Warsaw, Hamburg and Ljubljana), which constitute also the most modern segment of the labour market. Results confirm that despite different socio-economic and cultural settings younger, better educated and employed women are prone to have children later than less educated and non-working women, however cross-city differences are still remarkable. Furthermore, including unobserved heterogeneity resulted in rising of a baseline hazard rate and differences between younger and older generations as well as between high and less educated women.