Costs and Gains to Postponement: How Changes in the Age of Parenthood Influence the Health and Well-being of Children, the Parents, and Populations

Obiettivo

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.

Campo scientifico

Meccanismo di finanziamento

ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Istituzione ospitante

LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

Contributo UE

€ 1 305 599,60

Indirizzo

Houghton Street 1
WC2A 2AE London
Regno Unito

Regione

London Inner London — West Westminster

Tipo di attività

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Contatto amministrativo

Keri Rowsell (Ms.)

Ricercatore principale

Mikko Myrskyla (Prof.)

Collegamenti

Contatta l’organizzazione Sito web

Costo totale

Nessun dato

Beneficiari (1)