Journal article
The impact of lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic on fertility intentions
Irma Mooi-Reci, Trong-Anh Trinh, Esperanza Vera-Toscano, Mark Wooden
ECONOMICS & HUMAN BIOLOGY | ELSEVIER | Published : 2023
Abstract
Lockdown edicts during the COVID-19 pandemic have led to concerns about consequences for childbirth plans and decisions. Robust empirical research to either refute or confirm these concerns, however, is lacking. To evaluate the causal impact of lockdowns on fertility, we exploited a large sample of Australians (aged 18–45) from a nationally representative household panel survey and leveraged variation from a unique natural experiment that occurred in Australia in 2020: a lockdown imposed in the state of Victoria, but not elsewhere in Australia. Difference-in-differences models were estimated comparing changes in fertility intentions of persons who resided in Victoria during lockdown, or with..
View full abstractGrants
Awarded by Australian Research Council's Special Research Initiative in Australian Society, History and Culture scheme
Awarded by US National Institutes of Health
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
This paper uses unit-record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Survey Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to either DSS or the Melbourne Institute. This research was supported under the Australian Research Council's Special Research Initiative in Australian Society, History and Culture scheme (project #SR200200298), and by a US National Institutes of Health Grant (#R01AG071649: PI Lillard, with a sub-award to the University of Melbourne: PI Wooden). The data used are available free of charge to researchers through the National Centre for Longitudinal Data Dataverse at the Australian Data Archive (https:// dataverse.ada.edu.au/dataverse/ncld). Access is subject to approval by the Australian Government Department of Social Services and is conditional on signing a license specifying terms of use.