Preliminary Programme

The historic fall of fertility in Spain occurred much later than in the rest of Europe, and especially in France. Fertility was still very high at the beginning of the Twentieth century with values of the TFR close to 5 live births per women. This is generally explained by the fact that infant mortality levels were still very high at the end of the Nineteenth century. This big picture of a late transition hides some important differences at the regional level and also if we take into account birth order and union status. For example it is well known that the fertility transition started much earlier in the Northeast, at least 50 years before than the rest of Spain. Also childlessness levels were very high for cohorts born during the years 1890-1910, even for married women. Childlessness was also very high in Central Spain during most of the Twentieth century, in regions where the diffusion of birth control occurred much later than in the rest of Spain.

Traditional explanations of the fertility transition use diffusion hypotheses, based on the idea that the adoption of birth control was mainly the result of a change in the collective mindset, akin to the embracing of a new fashion (for example this is the main conclusion of the European Fertility Princeton Project). Those conclusions have been recently been revised based on the use of new econometric methods which take into account the spatial dimension, but still using aggregated data. We propose to have a new look at the Spanish fertility transition, using individual data thanks to the big retrospective Spanish Socio-demographic survey of year 1991 for which nearly 160.000 were surveyed, with complete biographical history for unions, births, migrations and occupation spells. We will focus on the determinants of childlessness levels by region, union status, educational attainment and other covariates, in order to determine whether birth control was already used by certain population groups, while this was not apparent when measuring fertility at the aggregate level with traditional indexes that does not take into account the birth order. If birth control was used for the first birth at time and in regions where it was not used for the remaining orders, this could represent an indirect proof that the adoption of contraceptive practices was not the result of a change in norms, but an economic necessity. (Show less)

In 1961, a second complete fertility survey was re-proposed some thirty years later the survey of 1931, introducing more details in the information concerning ever-married women. The Central Institute of Statistics processed this mass of data only in part and moreover with considerable delay. It is therefore not surprising that the results of the census of 1961 have received less attention despite some of its innovative characteristics.
Our starting point is the original “Family sheets” of the Census of 1961 regarding (as of today, March 2013) four populations located in four different regions. We are currently working to expand our analysis to other communities. This approach would allow us to focus our attention (at the micro-level) on specific groups of women who have lived as protagonists the dramatic socio-economic transformation of Italy. Moreover, the most part of such women lived their childhood, marriage and reproductive life during the Fascist era. We have therefore the opportunity to get also some insight in the effects of the pro-natalistic policy of the regime on the fertility of the various socio-economic strata of the population. (Show less)

The reduction in infant and child mortality rates has been considered one of the key factors prompting fertility decline. However, our knowledge in this regard is still limited; the relationship between early life mortality and fertility, indeed, is complex since involves multiple dimensions that are difficult to disentangle. Furthermore up to now research on this topic has not permitted to measure adequately the interaction mechanisms involved, since it has mostly relied on aggregate data.
This paper aims to explore this complex relationship during the Sardinian demographic transition on the basis of an individual level data set reconstructed for the north western community of Alghero for the years 1866-1935. Sardinian experience is particularly interesting because the island, where infant mortality rates were amongst the lowest in the country, has known the most delayed fertility decline process. (Show less)

The present work aims to study the Italian fertility transition in the first 40 years of the 20th century by means of individual-longitudinal data and life-course histories from Granarolo, an Italian community situated in the rural area of Bologna. This community is a typical example of the transition from a rural-oriented economy to a new economic system based on urban enlargement and the first phase of industrialization. The reconstruction on the biographies is carried out by exploiting civil population registers, vital event registrations, and census records.
The specific aim of the study is to fill the gap on some key points of Italian fertility decline that still need robust explanations. Thus, the main objectives are: i) to understand in which sectors of society ripened the idea of some deliberate forms of birth control; ii) to detect which social, economic, and cultural factors played a key role by speeding up the process of diffusion of birth control practices.
To what extent the new and changed social and economic conditions, along with a new political context might have conditioned the process of fertility decline is a matter that can be understood only through the use of micro-level data and life-course approaches in which individual trajectories interplay and interact with family structures and context factors. (Show less)