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Lappega˚rd T. and Rønsen M., 2005, The multifaceted impact of education on entry into motherhood, European Journal of Population 21: 31-49.Abstract. This article studies the composite effect of education on young women's entry into motherhood, using longitudinal data from Norway from 1971 to 2001. In line with previous research, we find that school enrolment delays motherhood, but having finished education there is a catching-up effect, as women who have completed at higher levels have their first child sooner than women who have completed at lower levels. Contrasting behaviour between women within various fields of education further indicate a career-adjustment effect related to differences in opportunity costs and/or preference heterogeneity. Finally, increasing educational differences in the timing of motherhood among younger cohorts suggest that long parental leaves and generous family benefits may fit better with a career track in some jobs than others. Lappega˚rd T. et Rønsen M., 2005, Les multiples facettes de l'effet de l'instruction sur la maternite´, Revue Europe´enne de De´mographie, 21: 31-49.Re´sume´. Cet article e´tudie l'effet composite de l'instruction sur l'entre´e en maternite´des jeunes femmes, en s'appuyant sur des donne´es longitudinales norve´giennes couvrant la pe´riode 1971-2001. Dans la ligne de pre´ce´dentes recherches, nous trouvons que la poursuite des e´tudes retarde la maternite´. En revanche, de`s l'arreˆt des e´tudes, il y a un effet de rattrapage et les femmes qui ont atteint des niveaux d'instruction plus e´leve´s ont leur premier enfant plus toˆt que celles qui ont fini leurs e´tudes a`des niveaux plus bas. Selon les filie`res suivies, les femmes n'ont pas les meˆmes comportements, re´ve´lant un effet d'ajustement de la carrie`re de´pendant des couˆts et/ou de pre´fe´rences he´te´roge`nes. Enfin, pour les plus jeunes ge´ne´rations, l'accroissement des diffe´rences dans le calendrier des naissances selon le niveau d'instruction tend a`prouver que les conge´s parentaux et des prestations familiales conse´quentes conviennent davantage a`certains cursus de carrie`re professionnelle qu'a`d'autres.Mots cle´s: fe´condite´, premie`re naissance, instruction, mode`le de risque multivarieÉ uropean Journal of Population (2005) 21: 31-49 Ó Springer 2005

It has been argued that a society's gender system may influence parents' sex preferences for children. If this is true, one should expect to find no evidence of such preferences in countries with a high level of gender equality. In this article, we exploit data from population registers from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden to examine continuities and changes in parental sex preferences in the Nordic countries during the past three to four decades. First, we do not observe an effect of the sex of the first born child on second-birth risks. Second, we detect a distinct preference for at least one child of each sex among parents of two children. For third births, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish parents seem to develop a preference for having a daughter, while Finns exhibit a significant preference for having a son. These findings show that modernization and more equal opportunities for women and men do not necessarily lead to parental gender indifference. On the contrary, they may even result in new sex preferences.

This article analyzes male fertility, with a particular focus on multipartner fertility, for cohorts born 1955 to 1984 in Norway. We find that socioeconomically disadvantaged men have the lowest chance of becoming fathers and the lowest likelihood of fathering multiple children in stable unions. Multipartner fertility, on the other hand, is positively associated with both disadvantage and advantage: higher-order birth risks with a new partner are more prevalent among men with low as well as high socioeconomic status. An intervening factor among disadvantaged men may be a higher union dissolution risk, and an elevated risk among advantaged men may be associated with their higher preferences for children and other features that make these men more attractive to women as partners and fathers of future children.

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