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Project

Work, living arrangements and social policy. An exploration of socio-economic differentials in family formation in Belgium using an administrative socio-demographic panel.

Since the 1970s Belgium and most European countries have witnessed a baby bust, with period fertility levels declining below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. This project analyses recent trends in union and family formation in Belgium and aims to assess how patterns of family formation are likely to develop in the near future. In addressing this research question, the project considers four factors that are particularly relevant: i) the increase of female educational attainment and labour force participation and the recursive relationship between family formation and the socio-economic position of individuals and households, ii) the increasing diversity of living arrangements in European countries and the recursive relationship between living arrangements and fertility outcomes, iii) the increasing importance of family policies in reducing the incompatibility between labour force participation and family formation and socio-economic differentials in the uptake of family policies, and iv) the evolution of patterns of family formation and labour force participation in immigrant populations and the impact of increasing migration on demographic trends in Belgium at an aggregate level. The project uses longitudinal data from the Crossroads Bank for Social Security to construct a longitudinal prospective panel that spans the period from the mid 1990s to 2010. This panel includes detailed measures of the living arrangement and socio-economic position of approximately 100000 women and their co-resident household members throughout the observation period. In addition, the supplementary samples have been drawn to include immigrants (and their co-resident household members) who settled in Belgium after 1998 to maintain the representativity of the panel throughout the period considered. The detailed and continuous measurement of socio-economic position and living arrangements provides a unique opportunity to assess the recursive relationship between these factors and family formation (e.g. disentangling the effect of initial socio-economic position and/or living arrangements on entry into parenthood and subsequently assessing the effect of parenthood on socio-economic position/living arrangement). The project is integrated in an international network on register-based research in demography.
Date:1 Oct 2013 →  30 Sep 2017
Keywords:HOUSEHOLD DYNAMICS, LABOUR FORCE PARTICPIATION, MIGRATION, FERTILITY
Disciplines:Applied sociology, Demography, Policy and administration, Social psychology, Social stratification, Social theory and sociological methods, Sociology of life course, family and health, Other sociology and anthropology