A MEDITERRANEAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE BREAKDOWN OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARTICIPATION AND FERTILITY

In this paper we address two related questions: first, why does the in verse relationship between female participation and fertility appear t o have broken down on a cross-country basis in the Western industriali sed nations and, second, why has Mediterranean Europe contributed to t his breakdown with its combination of record low fertility and low par ticipation? We re-examine the cross-country fertility-participation ne xus from a long-term perspective and verify that there are no longer r easons to expect a systematic inverse relationship to hold for develop ed countries. We argue further that differences in participation and f ertility reflect differences in the 'economics of the family' across c ountries. In Mediterranean countries, the combination of low fertility and low participation is favoured by a family-centred welfare system, a family-biased production system and a family-oriented value system. And, contrary to widespread expectations, a very cohesive family has encouraged very low fertility.