Differential demographic behaviour by education and its links with the reproduction of educational inequalities in Europe

Project Information

DEMOquality

Grant agreement ID: 846478

DOI

10.3030/846478

Project terminated on 31 December 2020

EC signature date 23 April 2019

Start date 2 January 2020

End date 1 January 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 184 707,84

EU contribution

€ 184 707,84

Coordinated by

INSTITUT NATIONAL D'ETUDES DEMOGRAPHIQUES
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DEMOquality (Differential demographic behaviour by education and its links with the reproduction of educational inequalities in Europe)

Reporting period: 2020-01-02 to 2022-01-01

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project focuses on the differences across countries in demographic behaviour by level of education. In analysing country differences, the project emphasizes the role of contextual factors, including educational inequalities (e.g. proportion of people with tertiary education, school drop-out rates), and how these are linked to demographic behaviour. It is argued that family policies, addressing the demographic behaviour of a society, cannot be seen as a separated block from economic and social policies. Inequalities between (and within) countries should also be seen as consequences of different demographic behaviour by socio-economic status. This topic is very timely, given that social inequalities within and across European countries have been on the rise over the last decades. Education, in particular, plays a chief role as a resource to fight poverty and to ensure greater social and territorial cohesion, as recognised by the Europe 2020 strategy. Moreover, inequalities within and across countries will only become larger due to the recent Covid crisis. The more family background matters in predicting success of individuals in education and, eventually, in their ageing prospects, the more inequalities will be widening and the less societies will be resilient to social crises. The extent to which family background matters is context-dependent in terms of institutional factors and observation periods.

During the current reporting period, the project had two main objectives: (1) To study the educational differentials in demographic behaviour and its consequences for children’s educational outcomes; (2) To study the link between individuals’ demographic behaviours and macro-level factors to explain country-differences.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

For each scientific objective, a literature review has been carried out, jointly with an empirical analysis. Eventually, four scientific working papers have been produced. In the course of 2021, these papers will be presented at international scientific conferences in the fields of sociology and demography.

Concerning the association between education and demographic behaviour, the project focused on (1) singlehood, (2) educational assortative mating and (3) fertility. The main results achieved so far, by analysing Generation and Gender Survey (GGS) data, showed that differences by education in both men and women’s unemployment rates by level of education are associated with differences in singlehood rates by educational level. Having said that, we have not found a strong association between country-level measures of inequality and types of educational pairings (e.g. homogamy or heterogamy by level of education). Next, we have analysed country differences in the association between partners’ level of education and fertility, accounting for stepchildren. Preliminary results show that, across all European countries, when stepchildren are counted in, women born in the 1960s and their partners were less often childless than couples of women born in the 1940s.We also found that stepchildren are less common among homogamous couples and couples with at least one highly educated partner. Among the more educated couples there are more couples with one common child or more, whereas among the least educated and among the heterogamous couples, stepchildren are more prevalent.

Using the European Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) data, the project found that in Europe, children living with medium and highly educated parents, especially the mother, are more likely to be enrolled in formal education compared to children with low educated parents. This effect seems to be more prominent in Central Europe and in Balkan countries, while it is much smaller in Nordic countries. The economic and financial crisis starting in 2008 does not seem to have had a major effect on the association between parental background and children’s enrolment in education.

Further analysing changing trends in intergenerational relations, using data from the Fertility Collection Database and the Human Mortality Database for 37 countries from around the world, we examined the parental lifespan as an indicator of societal well-being. The length of the parental lifespan is based on both fertility and life expectancy measures and refers to the average number of years that parents can expect to share with their children. Results connected to this project so far suggest that countries with smaller improvements in life expectancy provide shorter parental lifespans compared to countries where postponement of parenthood was accompanied by stronger gains in life expectancy. Gender differences mirror the gender-gap in mortality, which also varies across periods and countries. In line with the literature, it is possible to conclude that shorter parental lifespans can be detrimental for well-being, both among the young and the older generations. The children-generation may lack support at key stages of their life course. The parent-generation may not live long enough to benefit from the investments made earlier in their children’s human capital.

Results will be disseminated at international conferences in the field of sociology and demography.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project has tackled several topics that have improved upon the state of the art in the fields of both demography and sociology. Moreover, some preliminary societal implications of the project should be mentioned. First of all, the project has contributed to the current debate on country differences in demographic behaviour by education, and its connections to children’s educational outcomes. In particular, the project attentively emphasizes current family complexity by considering stepchildren, and stepfamilies. Family complexity is increasingly becoming an issue that policy makers are faced with, and that will pose major challenges in the future, especially because it is strongly associated with socio-economic inequalities. Members of the lower social strata are more likely to face complex family situations compared to members of the higher social strata, with consequences over the life course. Another important aspect of this project is to highlight contextual factors that can contribute to reducing the negative effects associated with different demographic behaviours by socio-economic status, and education in particular. Lastly, while policy-makers are generally aware of the importance of demographic indicators such as the total fertility rate, or life expectancy at birth, much less emphasis is given to considering both fertility and mortality indicators jointly. The project suggests that this can be done by using the so-called parental lifespan. In short, this project emphasizes the fact that enacting family policies, which aim to flatten educational differences in demographic behaviour, is a possible way to reduce the socio-economic divide across European countries. Overall, the project uncovers the connections between demography and social inequalities, which is a relevant topic for the European Commission (EC) and policy makers in general. Especially in this historical period, where studies analysing societal consequences of the Covid pandemic are needed, the study of the linkages between demographic behaviour and inequality is going to be at the core of research going forward.

Logo of the project.