Does job insecurity cause missing births in a high fertility European country ? Evidence from France

This paper investigates whether unemployment and insecure employment periods merely delay fertility or also impact on completed fertility in France. It analyses both the timing of first and second childbearing and the fertility reached at age 40. Different indicators of declining job security are used, i.e. current individual employment characteristics, the accumulation of unstable jobs, and aggregate-level indicators of job uncertainty. The timing of first childbearing depends negatively on male unemployment, while facing insecure employment periods delays fertility for women. Completed fertility is impacted by unemployment spells only for men who have faced long- term unemployment.