The Happiness Effect of Fertility:On Its Support for Low Fertility Rates
The happiness effect of fertility is an important perspective for understanding individual reproductive decision-making in a low-fertility societies.This paper examined the trajectory of parental happiness before and after the birth of their children by using data of the China Family Panel Studies(2010-2018).The study found that individuals had positive expected gains from the birth event in terms of subjective well-being,which peaked in the year of the fertility event and then gradually declined over time.The trajectories of subjective well-being before and after the fertility event suggest that the fertility event positively contributes to individuals'psychological and life perceptions,which also confirms the existence of an adaptation effect.The nature of employment moderates the happiness effect of reproduction and there are significant gender differences,suggesting that both fathers and mothers increase parent-child interaction and communication and derive higher levels of well-being when their jobs allow them to spend more time caring for their children.This happiness effect of fertility is super-economic and builds up the bottom of low fertility rates through individual fertility decisions.
subjective well-beinghappiness effect of childbearingset-point theorymotherhood penaltyfatherhood penalty
国家科技期刊平台
NSTL
万方数据
