Generations and Gender Programme

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Generations and Gender Programme

• Innovative Way of Advancing Knowledge for
  Policy-Making

Andres Vikat
IISP 4th Annual Scientific Conference, Moscow,
8-9 Dec 2005
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Demographic Context in Europe

• Below replacement fertility and low mortality ?
  population ageing and decline
• Changes in reproduction and cohabitation patterns
  ? changes in family structure
• Consequence
• Challenges to social and economic policies,
  including family policies

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Need for policy-relevant knowledge

• Governments and scientists know of changes in
  families and family relationships
• Governments and scientists aware of the lack of
  solid knowledge of causes of the changes
• Advances in knowledge essential for informed
  formulation of coordinated and systematic
  policies

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UNECE Tradition Surveys

• Comparative Fertility Surveys (CFS) 1966-71 12
  countries (4 in CEE)
• World Fertility Survey (WFS) 1975-81 18
  countries (6 in CEE)
• Fertility and Family Surveys (FFS) 1988-99 23
  UNECE countries New Zealand (8 in CEE)

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UNECE TraditionPolicy Discussion

• Geneva 1993European Population Conference
• Budapest 1998Regional Population Meeting
• Geneva 2004European Population Forum

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Fertility and Family Surveys - FFS

• Data 10 or more years old, do not enable the
  analysis of the effect of societal transition
• There is a need for a new round of comparative
  surveys ?Generations and Gender Programme (GGP)
• Many important questions cannot be addressed
  using retrospective data only

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Why GGP?

• To understand
• the relationship between child-bearing and family
  life on the one hand,and social, economic,
  political and ideational change on the other
• inter-generational relationships
• gender relationships
• in order to enable informed formulation of
  policies

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GGP a Unique Programme

• Currently the only international programme
  focusing on the analysis of population dynamics
  and its causes

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Key Features of the GGP

• Prospective view Panel design - crucial novelty
  compared to FFS
• Multidisciplinarity demography, sociology,
  economics, psychology, political science
• Comparability aiming at more rigorous adherence
  to common tools and content
• Context-sensitivity contextual database
• Generations Addressing the second half of the
  life course, facets of ageing
• Gender access to education and employment,
  autonomy, division of rolessample of both
  sexes, couple perspective, response items

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Survey Design - Main Features

• Panel
• Nationally representative sample of 18-79
  year-old men and women
• One respondent interviewed in a household

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Panel Design Makes It Possible

• to analyze relationships between demographic
  behaviour and life domains that can hardly or not
  at all be measured retrospectively, like
  subjective dimensions, income
• to analyze how demographic behaviour shapes value
  orientations and attitudes, influences
  well-being, intergenerational and gender
  relationships
• to analyze intentions of demographic behaviour,
  and the circumstances supporting or preventing
  their realization

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Focus of the GGS

• Target processes
• Childbearing
• Partnership dynamics
• Home leaving
• Retiring

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Main criterion for including explanatory topics

• Theoretically grounded relevance to explaining
  one or more of the target processes

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Two Main Explanatory Domains

• Economic aspects, including subjective assessment
  of them
• Activity
• Income
• Wealth
• ? New Home Economics, relative incomeabsolute
  and relative deprivation
• Values and attitudes
• ? Second Demographic Transition

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Other Explanatory Domains

• Parent-child relationships
• Gender relationships
• Household composition
• Housing
• Stepfamilies
• Contraception and infertility treatment
• Education
• Health
• Subjective well-being
• Social networks and private transfers
• Welfare state and public transfers

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Organisation of the Questionnaire

• Core
• 13 sections
• 4 optional sub-modules
• Nationality ethnicity
• Previous partners
• Intentions of breaking up
• Housing

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Prospective View Intentions

• Full set of questions include
• Intention
• Expected consequences
• Important circumstances
• Perceived attitudes of relevant others
• Implemented for
• starting to live with a partner if in a
  non-residential partnership, starting to live
  with the current non-resident partner
• starting to live separately from parents
• having a/another child
• retiring
• breaking up (optional)

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Other Intentions

• moving
• finishing education (if studying)
• resuming education (if not studying)
• marrying
• starting to live together with parents
• resuming work after maternity leave, parental
  leave, or childcare leave
• taking a job or starting a business (if not
  working)
• changing company or starting a business
  (employees)
• starting a new business or taking a job
  (self-employed)
• give up paid work (those who are working)

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Analysis
Wave 1
Retrospective histories
childbearing
partnerships
CHILDHOOD
ANALYSIS of INTENTIONS
CROSS-SECTIONAL ANALYSIS
LIFE COURSE ANALYSIS
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Analysis
Wave 3
Wave 1
Wave 2
Retrospective histories
childbearing
childbearing
childbearing
partnerships
partnerships
partnerships

CHILDHOOD
ANALYSIS of INTENTIONS
ANALYSIS of INTENTIONS
economic activity
economic activity
CROSS-SECTIONAL ANALYSIS
CROSS-SECTIONAL ANALYSIS
CROSS-SECTIONAL ANALYSIS
economic activity
changes from
changes from
Wave 1 to 2
Wave 2 to 3
LIFE COURSE ANALYSIS
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Examples of Analyses after Wave 1

• Intentions as the dependent variable
• Retrospective childbearing histories as the
  dependent variableAnalyses of parity
  progression, and combined partnership and
  childbearing histories
• Association of experienced partnership and
  childbearing history with current value
  orientations and attitudes and current
  labor-market status and other current situations
• Various kinds of cross-sectional analyses
• The novelty value of GGS unfolds only after
  implementing the following panel waves

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GGP Outputs

• Archives of national harmonised
• micro-data files of GGS
• macro-data files of contextual data
• National and cross national reports and studies
  for policy-makers and scientific community
• National and international meetings
• Input for policy discussion

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Organisation

• Programme level
• Consortium Board (steering group)
• Expert Working Groups
• Questionnaire Development - Wave 1
• Questionnaire Development - Wave 2
• Administrative Records
• Analysis defining standardised outputs
• Sampling, fieldwork guidelines, panel maintenance
  
• Informal Working Group representatives from all
  interested institutions and countries
• National level
• National committees / focal points
• focal point in Russia Independent Institute for
  Social Policy

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Institutional Setting

• Coordination
• UNECE Population Activities Unit
• Consortium
• Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
  (MPIDR)
• Institut national détudes démographiques (INED)
• Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic
  Institute (NIDI)
• Hungarian Central Statistical Office
• Statistics Canada
• Department of Social Policy, University of York
• Department of Demography, University of Rome La
  Sapienza

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May 2004
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October 2005
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Thank you for your attention.