We use data from a nationally representative sample of Swedish couples to estimate effects of partners' childbearing plans on the rate of subsequent childbearing. Only 11% of the couples in this sample expressed plans in opposite directions (plan to have a child versus not to have a child), but 24% had differing levels of certainty about their plans. Of the couples in which both partners said they definitely planned to have another child, 44% had a child within two years. If neither partner planned to have another child, less than 2% of couples had a birth. The figure was 6% if the partners had opposing childbearing plans. Thus, both men and women exerted veto power over further childbearing. Disagreements were equally likely to be resolved in favor of the woman as of the man, and effects of partners' plans on the birth hazard did not depend on the couple's gender arrangements, family ideologies, or marital status. We discuss these results in the context of Sweden's public support for gender equality and for childrearing, its pervasive contraceptive regime, and its high rates of cohabitation. We also argue for the collection of data from partners in future family and fertility surveys.

This paper reports the outcome of an exercise in curve fitting to annual sets of Danish age-specific fertility rates for the years 1962 to 1971 by means of least squares. Functions fitted were a cubic spline, the Hadwiger and Coale-Trussell functions, the gamma and beta densities, two versions of a polynomial, and two of Brass's relational procedures, as well as the Gompertz curve. The spline function fitted all curves far better than any of the others. The Coale-Trussell procedure and gamma density were about equal, followed by the Hadwiger function. All of these functions fit the data wells. One of the polynomials fit reasonably well, but the rest of the functions were less accurate.

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Abstract. The impact of education on formation of first unions is analyzed using interview data from a sample of Swedish women born in . A distinction is made between achieved level of education and the effect of being a student. The former appears to have little effect, but students start consensual unions at lower rates than corresponding non-students, and they also marry at much lower rates. Social background has not been important for marriage formation, but it has been for cohabitation, which was pioneered by the working class. There is no evidence that modern cohabitation started as a campus movement. Rdsumd. Effet du niveau d'instruction sur la formation du couple moderneL'impact du niveau d'instruction sur la conclusion d'une premiere union est analys~ ~t partir de donnfies d'enquSte sur un ~chantillon de Su~doises n~es entre 1936 et 1960. Le fait d'etre fitudiante se rfivfile plus d~cisif que le niveau d'instruction lui-m~me. Les ~tudiantes sont moins enclines que les non-~tudiantes ~t s'engager dans une union consensuelle, et beaucoup moins encore ~t se marier. Si le milieu social n'a gufire eu d'effet sur le mariage, iI en a eu sur la cohabitation, qui a fitfi 'lancfie' par la classe ouvrifire. Rien ne prouve que le concubinage moderne ait d~but~ sur les campus.