Family Policies, Gender Equality, and the Economics of Fertility

Objective

Fertility decline, persistent gender gaps in labor markets, and unequal opportunities for children are pressing challenges across Europe and other high-income countries. While previous research has shown that access to contraception, subsidized childcare, and parental leave policies matter, their long-run macroeconomic consequences remain understudied. This project addresses this gap by linking micro-level causal evidence with structural macro-labor models to quantify how reproductive and family policies shape fertility, parental investments, and women’s career trajectories. The proposal is organized into three interrelated work packages. WP1 develops a life-cycle model to analyze how reproductive autonomy—through contraception and abortion access—affects fertility timing, women’s labor supply, and intergenerational human capital accumulation. WP2 combines two Eurostat European microdatasets—the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Child Modules and Harmonised European Time Use Surveys—with a structural framework to examine how cross-country differences in monetary and time costs of childrearing, and the rise of “intensive parenting,” influence fertility. WP3 uses survey data and a structural job ladder model to study how job-protected parental leave shapes mothers’ ability to remain on, versus restart, the career ladder, with implications for long-term wage progression. By integrating micro evidence, cross-country comparisons, and structural modeling, the proposal pushes the frontier of family and labor economics. Its findings will provide policymakers with quantitative tools to assess the long-run impacts of reproductive rights, childcare subsidies, and family policy design. The proposal contributes directly to Horizon Europe’s priorities by addressing gender equality, intergenerational fairness, and the creation of resilient and inclusive labor markets.