Risk tolerance and fertility: Evidence from a lottery question in Italy

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• dc.contributor.author Bellani, Daniela
• dc.contributor.author Arpino, Bruno
• dc.date.accessioned 2023-05-15T06:42:55Z
• dc.date.available 2023-05-15T06:42:55Z
• dc.date.issued 2022
• dc.description.abstract Objective: This article offers a contribution to the fertility literature by considering the role of risk tolerance in the fertility decision-making process. Background: Despite a long tradition in fertility research emphasizing the great uncertainty underlying the decision to have children, the role of risk tolerance has been overlooked. Elaborating on previous theoretical approaches including those that have considered children as a “security” or as a “risky investment,” whether and how risk tolerance is related to fertility outcomes has been analyzed. Method: The analyses are based on longitudinal data from the Survey of Household Income and Wealth carried out by the Bank of Italy and rely on a lottery question to measure risk tolerance. Probit models for the probability of having the first and second child are estimated. Results: Results indicate that the most risk-tolerant individuals have the lowest probability to have a (an additional) child. This is consistent with the theoretical approaches that conceptualize children as an insurance and an immanent value. These results are particularly evident for low-income individuals. Implications: The findings point to the importance of considering risk tolerance in fertility research to gain a more complete understanding of heterogeneities in fertility behaviors.
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Bellani D, Arpino B. Risk tolerance and fertility: Evidence from a lottery question in Italy. J Marriage Fam. 2022;84(2):457-75. DOI: 10.1111/jomf.12820
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12820
• dc.identifier.issn 0022-2445
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/56807
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher Wiley
• dc.relation.ispartof Journal of Marriage and Family. 2022;84(2):457-75.
• dc.rights © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Marriage and Family published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• dc.subject.keyword demography
• dc.subject.keyword fertility
• dc.subject.keyword gender
• dc.subject.keyword quantitative methodology
• dc.subject.keyword transitions
• dc.title Risk tolerance and fertility: Evidence from a lottery question in Italy
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion