Papers by Bernhard Riederer
Applied Research in Quality of Life, May 27, 2023
Over the past decades, the number of single households is constantly rising in metropolitan regio... more Over the past decades, the number of single households is constantly rising in metropolitan regions. In addition, they became increasingly heterogeneous. In the media, individuals who live alone are sometimes still presented as deficient. Recent research, however, indicates a way more complex picture. Using the example of Vienna, this paper investigates the quality of life of different groups of single households in the city. Based on five waves of the Viennese Quality of Life Survey covering almost a quarter of a century (1995-2018), we analyse six domains of subjective well-being (satisfaction with the financial situation, the housing situation, the main activity, the family life, social contacts, and leisure time activities). Our analyses reveal that, in most domains, average satisfaction of single households has hardly changed over time. However, among those living alone satisfaction of senior people (60+) increased while satisfaction of younger people (below age 30) decreased. Increasing differences in satisfaction with main activity, housing, or financial situation reflect general societal developments on the Viennese labour and housing markets. The old clichéd images of the "young, reckless, happy single" and the "lonely, poor, dissatisfied senior single" reverse reality.
Die bisher diskutierten theoretischen Ansatze liefern wertvolle Argumente fur Effekte von Kindern... more Die bisher diskutierten theoretischen Ansatze liefern wertvolle Argumente fur Effekte von Kindern auf das elterliche Wohlbefinden. Dennoch weisen diese Theorien auch Schwachen auf und bleiben in ihrer Erklarungskraft fur den Zusammenhang zwischen Kindern und dem personlichen Wohlbefinden beschrankt. In diesem Kapitel erfolgt zunachst eine Darstellung der bisherigen empirischen Befunde zu den Effekten von Kindern auf das Wohlbefinden.
European Sociological Review, Dec 16, 2019
Comparing employment rates of mothers and childless women over the life course across the birth c... more Comparing employment rates of mothers and childless women over the life course across the birth cohorts from 1940 to 1979 in Austria, we address the question of whether the parenthood effect on employment has declined. By following synthetic cohorts of mothers and childless women up to retirement age, we can study both the short-term and long-term consequences of having a child. We consider employment participation as well as working time and also perform analyses by educational level. Our study is based on the Austrian microcensus, conducted between 1986 and 2016, and uses descriptive methods, logistic regression models, and decomposition analysis. The results show that the increase in the proportion of part-time work has led to a declining work volume of mothers with young children, despite employment rates of mothers having increased across cohorts. Return to the workplace is progressively concentrated when the child is 3-5 years old, but the parenthood effect has become weaker only from the time children enter school. Part-time employment is primarily adopted (at least with younger children) by highly educated mothers and often remains a long-term arrangement.
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Apr 1, 2018
We compare employment rates of mothers and childless women over the life course across the birth ... more We compare employment rates of mothers and childless women over the life course across the birth cohorts from 1940 to 1979 in Austria. By following synthetic cohorts of mothers and childless women up to retirement age, we are able to study both short-term and longterm consequences of having a child. We consider employment participation as well as working time and also perform analyses by educational level. Our study is based on the Austrian microcensus (labour force survey), conducted between 1986 and 2016. The results show that although employment rates of mothers have increased across cohorts, the spread of part-time work has led to a declining work volume of mothers with young children. Return to the workplace is increasingly concentrated when the child is 3 to 5 years old. Parttime employment is primarily adopted (at least with younger children) by highly educated mothers and often remains a long-term arrangement.
Population and Development Review
While researchers provided insights on the impact of the pandemic on childbirths, there is limite... more While researchers provided insights on the impact of the pandemic on childbirths, there is limited research on how the aftermath of the pandemic has shaped thoughts about family formation in the medium to long term. Our analysis explores perceived consequences of the pandemic on individuals' family plans. We focus on Austria, a high‐income country, characterized by a history of stable and low fertility and deeply rooted conservative family and work arrangements. Using a large representative survey carried out in fall 2021, we study self‐assessed consequences of the pandemic on family plans among women aged 20–45 years and men aged 20–50 years. Results show that only 7.6 percent of respondents intending (further) children before the pandemic changed their plans due to the pandemic. Women, persons of later reproductive ages, and parents of two or more children were more likely to intend to have less children or to have them later than initially planned. Nevertheless, the mean inte...
Elternschaft und Wohlbefinden, 2018
Der Ausgangspunkt der meisten Arbeiten, die sich mit den Effekten von Kindern auf die Eltern besc... more Der Ausgangspunkt der meisten Arbeiten, die sich mit den Effekten von Kindern auf die Eltern beschaftigen, ist der in den Industriestaaten in den letzten Jahrzehnten deutlich erkennbare Geburtenruckgang (Balbo et al., 2013; Lutz et al., 2006; Morgan & Taylor, 2006; Sobotka, 2004). Erklart werden soll, warum Menschen keine oder immer weniger Kinder haben. Insofern ist es nicht uberraschend, dass negative Aspekte der Elternschaft in den Vordergrund der Betrachtungen rucken.
Die bisher diskutierten theoretischen Ansatze liefern wertvolle Argumente fur Effekte von Kindern... more Die bisher diskutierten theoretischen Ansatze liefern wertvolle Argumente fur Effekte von Kindern auf das elterliche Wohlbefinden. Dennoch weisen diese Theorien auch Schwachen auf und bleiben in ihrer Erklarungskraft fur den Zusammenhang zwischen Kindern und dem personlichen Wohlbefinden beschrankt. In diesem Kapitel erfolgt zunachst eine Darstellung der bisherigen empirischen Befunde zu den Effekten von Kindern auf das Wohlbefinden.
Wie bereits in Kapitel 3.4 ausgefuhrt wurde, folgt an dieser Stelle eine Analyse von Prozessen au... more Wie bereits in Kapitel 3.4 ausgefuhrt wurde, folgt an dieser Stelle eine Analyse von Prozessen auf Individual- und Paarebene. Durch diese soll u.a. verdeutlicht werden, worauf Ross und Huber (1985) bereits vor uber 30 Jahren hinwiesen; namlich darauf, dass sich positive und negative Effekte von Kindern auf das Wohlbefinden der Eltern gegenseitig aufheben und dadurch einen Effekt in der Nahe von Null hervorbringen konnen (ebd., S. 324). Belastungen durch jungere Kinder verdecken bei groserer Kinderzahl zunehmend die positiven Effekte der Elternschaft.
Working papers of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research receive only limited review. ... more Working papers of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research receive only limited review. Views or opinions expressed in working papers are attributable to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute.
Research Papers in Economics, 2018
Building upon results of prior focus group research, the present study employs online surveys abo... more Building upon results of prior focus group research, the present study employs online surveys about possible future developments of the vulnerability of families with children in Europe. In addition, respondents assessed the relevance of societal factors influencing future family well-being and the effectiveness of ten selected policy measures in preventing the intergenerational transfer of vulnerability. One survey was directed at scientists and practitioners who are family experts (N=175). Another survey aimed at exploring the thoughts of parents themselves (N=1,343). Results show that experts are rather pessimistic and even expect vulnerability to increase in the future. In their opinion, the most relevant forces driving future vulnerability seem to be economic development—manifesting itself in unemployment and earnings inequality—and family policy. As for policy measures, childcare availability, early childhood education, assistance for children with special needs and raising aw...
Dutch Crossing: Journal of Low Countries Studies, 2016
Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass auf der Makroebene die Qualität und die Stratifizierung des Bildun... more Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass auf der Makroebene die Qualität und die Stratifizierung des Bildungssystems für die Lesekompetenzen von jugendlichen Migranten entscheidend sind. Die Ressourcen und die Organisationsform von Schulen sowie ihre soziale und ethnische Zusammensetzung sind ebenfalls wichtige Faktoren. Auf der individuellen Ebene sind besonders das kulturelle Kapital der Eltern und die zu Hause gesprochene Sprache zentral. Zusätzlich kçnnen wir zeigen, dass in den meisten Untersuchungsländern die 2. Migrantengeneration bessere Bildungsleistungen aufweist als die 1. Generation, und dass die Lücke zwischen Schülern mit und solchen ohne Migrationshintergrund im Zeitverlauf abgenommen hat.
Institut für Demographie - VID, 2021
The study of fertility intentions has gained importance in the literature during the last decades... more The study of fertility intentions has gained importance in the literature during the last decades. Nevertheless, research focussing on their realisation is still scarce due to limited availability of longitudinal data. Although a bulk of existing studies demonstrated regional variation and rural-urban differences in fertility, respective differences in the realisation of fertility intentions have not been addressed in prior research. We address this shortcoming by analysing the realisation of short-term fertility intentions in Vienna and Budapest as opposed to the remaining parts of Austria and Hungary, using two waves of the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS). Results clearly demonstrate that those two capitals are different: Although short-term childbearing intentions are very similar in capitals and other parts of the countries, probabilities of realisation are lower in capitals. These differences in realisation are at least partly explained by individual characteristics of inhabitants. There are, however, also factors that affect realisation differently in metropolitan than in less populated regions.
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Papers by Bernhard Riederer
the children raised within those families. Reducing the societal
reproduction of vulnerability is a great challenge for policy-
makers. The present book explores societal developments
that influence future vulnerability and discusses respective policy
implications.