Vienna Yearbook of Population Research

Electronic Publication/s

Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2012

Special Issue: Education and the global fertility transition

Guest editors: K.S. James, Vegard Skirbekk, Jan Van Bavel

The 2012 issue of the Vienna Yearbook of Population Research presents research focusing on the links between education and global fertility change and their implications. The long-term rise of education levels is among the key drivers of fertility decline in the course of the demographic transition. Articles in this volume pay special attention to changes in school attainment and the implications for the timing and level of fertility. Several key channels through which education growth and changing education balance between couples affect fertility are investigated, ranging from its effects on female financial autonomy to the effects on marriage markets characterised by high levels of educational homogamy. The studies featured in this volume also cover fertility and family transitions and their consequences in different stages of the life course, including spousal and parental roles among student populations, contrasting pathways to family formation in different cultures of Japan and Germany and the consequences of family size for cognitive abilities later in life.