Abstract
The ageing of European societies is shifting governments’ focus towards means to influence families and fertility. However, increased attention towards family policies is combined with increasing demands to cut public spending in many countries. There are requests to introduce means-testing, or otherwise to restrict eligibility to financial benefits, which have traditionally been the core of government support for families. Increasing attention to the relationship between women’s employment and childbearing is also shifting the emphasis towards institutional measures which address reconciliation of work and family. To what extent is public opinion in agreement with these changes? What policies do people themselves prefer? Using data from the Population Policy Acceptance Survey, we examine public preferences concerning family policy measures and their improvement in the DIALOG countries. We examine the preferences towards financial and institutional measures among childless persons and parents who have one child, as these two groups are likely to be those among whom family policy measures can be expected to influence childbearing choices. We analyse the opinions in three groups of countries based on their recent fertility development (lowest, low and moderate fertility). While there is marked variation between country groups as to how different measures are valued, some of the variety in the opinions is also related to individual level socio-demographic factors. In addition, we find that expectations towards government are not always in agreement with existing policies.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call