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The Scanian Economic-Demographic Database (SEDD) is a high-quality longitudinal data resource spanning the period 1646-1967. It covers all individuals born in or migrated to the city of Landskrona and five rural parishes in western Scania in southern Sweden. The entire population present in the area is fully covered after 1813. At the individual level, SEDD combines various demographic and socioeconomic records, including causes of death, place of birth and geographic data on the place of residence within a parish. At the family level, the data contain a combination of demographic records and information on occupation, landholding and income. The data for 1813-1967 was structured in the model of the Intermediate Data Structure (IDS). In addition to storing source data in the SEDD IDS tables, a wide range of individual- and context-level variables were constructed, which means that most types of analyses using SEDD can be conducted without the need of further elaboration of the data. This article discusses the source material, linkage methods, and structure of the database.

Although the diffusion of fertility behavior between different social strata in historical communities has received considerable attention in recent studies, the relationship between the diffusion of fertility behavior and the diffusion of people (migration) during the nineteenth century remains largely underexplored. Evidence from population registers compiled in the Historical Database of the Liège Region, covering the period of 1812 to 1900, reveals that migrant couples in Sart, Belgium, from 1850 to 1874 and from 1875 to 1899 had a reduced risk of conception. The incorporation of geographical mobility, as well as the migrant status of both husbands and wives, into this fertility research sheds light not only on the spread of ideas and behaviors but also on the possible reasons why the ideas and behaviors of immigrants might have been similar to, or different from, those of a native-born population.

Using longitudinal data this work analyses historical fertility between 1834 and 1914 in an Alpine village situated in north-east Italy, characterised by scarce resources and by an economy which passed from being traditional and based on closed subsistence to becoming open and integrated. During the initial period studied, this territory can be described as a natural fertility context, where Malthusian preventive checks were long-run mechanisms adopted to overcome the limitations set by the environment. In later years, seasonal migration started to play a predominant role in the community. These flows involved the best skilled, wealthiest and healthiest males and the countries of destination were more modern and affluent, offered better labour opportunities and salaries and possibilities of qualification. Impacts on fertility were strong, evidencing a smaller number of births for migrants, which partly resulted from a reduced childbearing period, with a later start and an earlier stop. The findings of this work therefore show that due to the positive selectivity of these men and to the exposure to influences during their periods of absence, in this village seasonal migrants were the agents of change and also the vanguard of modern reproductive behaviours.Résumé A partir de données longitudinales, cette étude analyse la fécondité observée entre 1843 et 1914 dans un village alpin au Nord-est de l'Italie, caractérisé par des ressources rares et par le passage d'une économie traditionnelle et de subsistance à une économie ouverte et intégrée. Au début de la période étudiée, ce L. Quaranta (