Quantity Quality trade-off on fertility behaviour

Abstract

In the last 50 years we have witnessed profound changes in Portuguese’s life styles. Changes in education and conjugality dynamics, or in the female participation in the labour market (Sobotka 2008, Cunha 2012, Mendes et al. 2015), have somehow contributed to an increasing number of couples that end their reproductive lives with only one child. Moreover, it is also argued that values and attitudes towards individuals’ lives have a great influence in their reproductive behaviour (Mendes et al. 2015). Recent studies reveal that the perception of children’s (possible) future opportunities, in a way that controlling and limiting the number of children may benefit their future, has an impact in individual’s reproductive behaviour (Bandeira, 2012; Mendes et al. 2015). Hence, in this Population News issue, we specifically explore the effect of the trade-off between the number of children and the opportunities given to them, in individual’s reproductive behaviour.