Objective Advanced maternal and paternal ages are associated with a range of negative offspring outcomes, and have been estimated to have population-level health effects comparable to those of obesity. This project analyses the health and well-being consequences of fertility postponement, focusing on three previously unanswered questions. Project A assesses the causality of the advanced parental age-offspring outcomes association. The existing literature is largely associational. Using innovative methods that allow me to control for previously unanalysed factors, I test the causality of this association and produce new estimates for the population level health impact of advanced parental age. Project B focuses on the role of the environment. Since health improves over cohorts, can postponement of parenthood – which means that the child is born to a later cohort – improve offspring outcomes? Moreover, does the environment influence the young parental age effect on the offspring? Project C analyses the implications of postponed parenthood on parental subjective well-being, which is critical for both child and parental health, but has not been analysed before.Each of the three sub-projects has the potential for producing ground-breaking results with important policy implications and large impact on both demography and on other disciplines. Project A either confirms that the social process of fertility postponement is an important public health threat, or shows that the health effects of postponement have been grossly overestimated. Project B may revolutionise the way postponement is seen: if the cohort trend hypothesis is found to be true, the assumption that postponement has a positive effect on offspring outcomes at the individual level will be confirmed. Project C provides an innovative analysis of a neglected outcome that is critically related to child health and will advance our knowledge of the motivation for fertility postponement. Fields of science medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic healthepidemiologyepidemics preventionsocial sciencessociologydemographyfertilitymedical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutritionobesity Programme(s) FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) ERC-SG-SH3 - ERC Starting Grant - Environment and society Call for proposal ERC-2013-StG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant Host institution LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE EU contribution € 1 305 599,60 Address Houghton Street 1 WC2A 2AE London United Kingdom See on map Region London Inner London — West Westminster Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Keri Rowsell (Ms.) Principal investigator Mikko Myrskyla (Prof.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Beneficiaries (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE United Kingdom EU contribution € 1 305 599,60 Address Houghton Street 1 WC2A 2AE London See on map Region London Inner London — West Westminster Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Keri Rowsell (Ms.) Principal investigator Mikko Myrskyla (Prof.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data