Fertility response to economic recessions in Finland 1991–2015

Abstract

Previous studies have established a robust negative association between unemployment and fertility. Finland has experienced two periods of deep economic recessions within last 25 years, one in the early 1990s and the other during the Great Recession in the 2000s. This study analyzes fertility response to economic recession in Finland through total and gender specific unemployment between 1991 and 2015 with sub-regional data. The method of analysis is sub-region fixed effect regression. The changes in unemployment were associated with changes in fertility in Finland from 1991 to 2015. One percentage increase in unemployment reduced delivery rate by 0.13 percentages. The effect of unemployment on fertility was stronger during the Great recession than during the recession in the 1990s.