Is It Who You Are or Where You Live? Community Effects on Fertility Behavior during the Demographic Transition in Sweden: A Multi-Level Analysis Using Micro Census Data

Martin Dribe, Lund University
Sol Juarez, Lund University
Francesco Scalone, Università di Bologna

The aim of this paper is to study contextual effects on fertility to obtain empirical evidence that the community in which individuals lived had an independent effect on their fertility behavior over and above their individual characteristics. This aim connects with hypotheses regarding the importance of innovation-diffusion in the process of the fertility decline. Using micro-census data for Sweden from 1880, 1890, and 1900, we use multilevel analysis to estimate measures of variance over time. Our findings reveal that it is who you are rather than where you live that explains fertility behavior during the transition.