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Unemployment, Nonstandard Employment, and Fertility

Insights From Japan’s “Lost 20 Years”

Bibliographic Data

ID10969578
AuthorsJames M Raymo (0000-0001-6766-685X, University of Wisconsin–Madison, corresponding author), Akihisa Shibata (0000-0002-2284-1332, Kyoto Institute for Economic Research, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan)
Year2017
Volume54
Issue6
Pages2301-2329
Publication date2017-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDemography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0070-3370 • E-ISSN: 1533-7790
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1007/s13524-017-0614-y
PMID28971340
OpenAlexW2763232184
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited69

In this study, we examine relationships of unemployment and nonstandard employment with fertility. We focus on Japan, a country characterized by a prolonged economic downturn, significant increases in both unemployment and nonstandard employment, a strong link between marriage and childbearing, and pronounced gender differences in economic roles and opportunities. Analyses of retrospective employment, marriage, and fertility data for the period 1990–2006 indicate that changing employment circumstances for men are associated with lower levels of marriage, while changes in women’s employment are associated with higher levels of marital fertility. The latter association outweighs the former, and results of counterfactual standardization analyses indicate that Japan’s total fertility rate would have been 10 % to 20 % lower than the observed rate after 1995 if aggregate- and individual-level employment conditions had remained unchanged from the 1980s. We discuss the implications of these results in light of ongoing policy efforts to promote family formation and research on temporal and regional variation in men’s and women’s roles within the family

Counterfactual thinking · Demographic economics · Developed country · Economic growth · Economics · Family planning · Fertility · Labour economics · Population · Research methodology · Sociology · Total fertility rate · Unemployment · Demography · Employment and Welfare Studies · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Psychology

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Unique citing works27
Citations per year3,86
Citation span2019 - 2026 (8)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 26
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