Eva Beaujouan and her team will be funded by an ERC Consolidator grant to work on the BIC.LATE project, starting for five years in September. The age at which people have their children has increased tremendously since the 1970s in Europe, the English-speaking oversea countries and East Asia.
The reasons for delayed reproduction have been explored extensively, but very little attention has been given to the factors that facilitate and constrain fertility at later ages (from age 30). Yet, the desire and ability of those who did not have children in their 20s to have them later (“fertility recuperation”) are decisive for future fertility levels, and for life satisfaction among those who wish children. BIC.LATE will fill this gap by studying the biological, individual and contextual factors of later reproduction in the low-fertility countries, and possible catch-up behaviour of those who did not have a child earlier.
In this new perspective, a series of studies will explore these three essential aspects of fertility recuperation among women and men, using survey and panel data (including the Generations and Gender Surveys), data from fertility clinics and aggregate cohort fertility trends. For more information on the project click here.
Eva Beaujouan is assistant professor at the Department of Demography of the University of Vienna, which is part of the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (IIASA, OeAW, University of Vienna).
