Contextual Database for Generations & Gender Research

1. The Contextual Database of the Generations and Gender Program Presentation at the 4th IISP Annual Scientific Conference, Moscow 2005Martin Spielauer

2. Overview • Key ambitions of the Contextual Database • Key features • Web Implementation • Research-Example

3. Ambition 1: CDB as integral part of GGP TOPICS OF CDB Life course and context: • Demographic events and health: • Demographic indicators • Health and health care • Activity • Labor and employment • Unemployment • Pension system • Parental and care leave • National service • Education • Socio-economic context: • General economy • Housing • Generational- and gender relations • Legal regulations • Childcare • Elderly care • Tax-benefit system • Values and attitudes • Culture • Political system FOCUS on key dependent variables of survey: births, partnership formation & dissolution, transition to adulthood, retirement

4. Ambition 2: Theory-based framework • Norms that influence the timing & sequencing of events • Statistical norms • Legal norms and regulations • Welfare state context: policies that influence individual behavior; four important measurement dimensions • Equality/inequality • Agency: set of choices and ability to choose • Rights: social, economic, personal • Risks and consequences associated with studied behaviors

5. Ambition 3: Support innovative data analysis • Contextual and multi-level analysis • Provide variables that describe the regional variation of contexts between countries and regions • Provide time series to capture the variation over time • Provide policy histories that contribute to understanding of contextual changes over time; changes in regulations • Micro-macro link by group: age, sex, entitlement • Comparative research • Standardized tables and data definitions. • Emphasis on comparative schemes of policy descriptions

6. Key Features of the CDB • ~220 variables (tables) per country organized in 16 topics • ~65 national level time series data ranging back to 1970 • ~70 policy histories, giving text and standardized numeric descriptions of key policy changes and changes in legal regulations • ~60 regional level variables. Regional data are collected for years corresponding to panel waves or as short time series (going back to 2000) to capture recent trends

7. The first three countries • Bulgaria: • Center of Population Studies of the Bulgarian Academy of Science and Bulgarian Statistical Office • Data collection was finished in July 2005 • Russia • Independent Institute for Social Policy • Data collection finished in December 2005 • Hungary: • Hungarian Central Statistical Office • Data collection to be finished in early 2006 • To follow: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Romania

8. The Web-Implementation of the CDB • Web-Database developed and run at Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research • Provides fast access to all tables; easy navigation between countries • All tables can be downloaded in (1) Excel workbooks per topic and country, or as (2) individual CSV-files • Web-Database provides full documentation of the database, including downloads of key documents, variable definitions, etc. • Includes a collection of commented links to other databases.

9. Web-Tour: General

10. Web-Tour: General Country selection Selected country Download section General information on the CDB List of commented links to online data sources Topic selection

11. Web-Tour: General

12. Web-Tour: General Variables available for the selected country Click to go to table Download option: all variables of the selected topic for the selected country as Excel workbook Variables not available for the selected country

13. Web-Tour: General Download option: all variables of the selected topic for the selected country as Excel workbook

14. Web-Tour: Regional data

15. Web-Tour: Regional data Selected country Table also available for: Variable definition

16. Web-Tour: National time series Download option

17. Web-Tour: National time series Download option

18. Web-Tour: Policy histories [1] - Text

19. Web-Tour: Policy histories [1] - Text

20. Web-Tour: Policy histories [2] – standardized

21. Web-Tour: Policy histories [2] – standardized eligibility timing possibility/incentives to share with partner timing details money flexibility; choices

22. Using the Database: Research Example Intentions for second births of Bulgarian women living in a partnership • 1960 birth cohort had lowest childlessness and highest rate of two-child families in Europe • Dramatic drop of second births is driving force of recent fertility decline • Big regional variation in birth intentions

23. Using the Database: Research Example Contextual DB supports the study of policy changes with possible effects on second births, e.g.: • Housing: before the 1989 transition • privileged access to housing for families with larger families • having a second child “paid back” 20% of housing loans • Abortions • high abortion rates in Bulgaria • before 1990, abortions were not allowed for first and second births of married women • ……..

24. Using the Database: Research Example Contextual database supports the study of economic and socio-demographic trends and their regional variation • Hypothesis 1: economic insecurityExample for measure: regional unemployment • Hypothesis 2: economic inequalityExample for measure: regional GINI coefficient • Hypothesis 3: general demographic changeExample of measure : births out of marriage • Hypothesis 4: Postponement until circumstances improve Example of measure: regional wage growth

25. Logistic Models of second birth intentions

26. THANK YOU! Martin Spielauer spielauer@demogr.mpg.de http://www.demogr.mpg.de