Research

The intergenerational transmission of fertility has received considerable attention in demographic and sociological research; however, its implications for fertility decisions remain largely unexplored. This paper addresses this gap by investigating how social norms and familial influences shape fertility decisions in Sweden. The contribution of this study is twofold: (1) It proposes a theoretical framework through which social norms impact reproductive choices and tests these hypotheses empirically, utilizing an extended family model (Adermon et. al, 2021); (2) It provides the first piece of suggestive evidence of intergenerational transmission of childlessness - the extensive margin of fertility decisions.

The findings reveal that individuals from diverse demographic backgrounds exhibit varying degrees of intergenerational fertility correlation. The correlation is stronger among females and individuals with lower educational attainment, indicating these groups may be more susceptible to familial and social norms regarding childbearing. Additionally, while there is a noticeable variation in intergenerational fertility correlation among individuals born in different counties, the estimated correlation remains consistent across cohorts born between 1968 and 1978. This consistency suggests that the underlying factors influencing intergenerational fertility correlation are robust, regardless of the geographic differences. For childlessness, the average exposure to childlessness among parents' siblings shows a significant positive correlation with the probability of an individual being childless, providing suggestive evidence of intergenerational fertility transmission along the extensive margin.

We provide a theoretical micro foundation for how much pollution (negative externalities) a firm will internalize based on its shareholders’ interests. Small shareholders, compared to large ones, want the firm to take higher costs to avoid pollution since they suffer less profit loss. If the share equals 1/N , where N is the population in society, the shareholder’s preferred pollution level equals the social-planner solution. Consequently, small shareholders will systematically vote for a greener corporate profile; firms with more small shareholders are predicted to pollute less; and countries with concentrated corporate wealth holdings will pollute more. Testing these predictions empirically yields either null results or results counter to the predictions thus not supporting the trivial logic.