Academic Journal
Varieties of Capitalism and Cross-national Variation in Fertility Rates.
| Title: | Varieties of Capitalism and Cross-national Variation in Fertility Rates. |
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| Authors: | Movahed M; Department of Sociology and Broom Center for Demography, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA., Parrado EA; Department of Sociology and Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. |
| Source: | Demography [Demography] 2026 Apr 01; Vol. 63 (2), pp. 511-536. |
| Publication Type: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Journal Info: | Publisher: Duke University Press Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0226703 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1533-7790 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00703370 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Demography Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Publication: 2021- : Durham, NC : Duke University Press Original Publication: Washington, etc., Population Assn. of America. |
| MeSH Terms: | Birth Rate*/trends , Capitalism*, Humans ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Female |
| Abstract: | The institutional approach to explaining cross-national variation in demographic outcomes has gained increasing visibility in both academic research and public policy discourse. In this vein, much of the literature has focused on the effects of welfare programs on risk management and the associated costs of fertility. However, an alternative, more comprehensive perspective, namely, the "varieties of capitalism," emphasizes the role of broader social-structural and institutional characteristics of national economies in generating socioeconomic outcomes. This perspective has not been extended to debates around cross-national differences in demographic outcomes. We fill this void by elaborating on a varieties of capitalism account of cross-national and longitudinal variation in fertility rates. Drawing on panel data spanning more than three decades (1985‒2019) across 21 countries in the Global North, we investigate how institutional factors, through the lens of the varieties of capitalism perspective, correlate with differences in total fertility rates between countries and over time. Our results demonstrate that crucial institutional dimensions, such as centralization of wage bargaining, the employment protection index, and active labor market policies, are associated with variation in total fertility rates across countries and over time. (Copyright © 2026 The Authors.) |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Economic sociology; Institutions; Political sociology; Total fertility rate; Varieties of capitalism |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20260428 Date Completed: 20260715 Latest Revision: 20260715 |
| Update Code: | 20260716 |
| DOI: | 10.1215/00703370-12563895 |
| PMID: | 42046203 |
| Database: | MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1533-7790 |
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| DOI: | 10.1215/00703370-12563895 |