Abstract
This article explores socioeconomic differences in the effect of family allowances on fertility. Although several studies have examined the relationship between cash benefits and fertility, few studies have addressed the possible differential effects of cash benefits on families of different income or education levels. I reconstructed the birth histories ofwomen in the past two Israeli censuses of 1983 and 1995 to study socioeconomic differences in the effect of family allowances up to the seventh parity. The results indicate that family allowances have a significant effect at every parity. Using female education as an indicator of socioeconomic status, I find that socioeconomic status is a significant modifier of the effect of family allowances. Family allowances seem to have a relatively large impact on more- educated women.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 451-468 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Demography |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2009 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:A previous version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, New York, March 2007. The research reported in this article is an initiative of the Public Council for Demography and is supported by a grant from the National Insurance Institute of Israel. I would like to thank Moshe Ophir and Anat Ziv for research assistance; Zvi Eisenbach, David Gliksberg, and Guy Stecklov for their advice; four anonymous reviewers for their comments; and Joram Mayshar for sharing his family allowance data le with me. The census data used in the analysis were provided by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics through the Israel Social Science Data Center.