THEVENON Olivier

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How to think about the economy differently? For thirty years, researchers from different disciplines have been participating in the development of an economics of conventions that constructs a new representation of the economy. The 75 authors in this book provide an exceptional insight into this approach, based on the work of one of its main architects, Olivier Favereau. More than any other economist, he has worked throughout his career on interdisciplinary exchanges to renew our understanding of economic phenomena. The various entries in this non-standard dictionary discuss, use or extend this work. The reader thus has an unparalleled introduction to contemporary debates on the evolution of economic knowledge: the new representations of the firm, work, finance and more generally of economic behavior and its political dimension.

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This article studies the effects of women's employment on second births in contemporary Europe. By mobilizing longitudinal data from the European Union's Statistics of Income and Living conditions (EU-SILC) and aggregated data from the OECD Family Database, we find evidence that being in employment significantly increases women's probability of second childbirth. The magnitude of the effect differs, however, among individuals. The positive impact is stronger for highly educated women and for women with partners who are themselves in employment. Dual employment thus favours family enlargement from one to two children more strongly than other employment configurations within the couple. Multilevel models also reveal that the positive effect of employment on the transition to second childbirth is reinforced in countries with high childcare coverage. The development of childcare at the country level - the most effective family policy to secure women's employment - increases the individual probability for women of having a second child, whereas other types of institutional support such as leave schemes or lump-sum cash transfers do not have such a positive effect.

This paper investigates the effects of women's employment on second births in contemporary Europe. Using longitudinal data from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) from 2003 to 2011, and aggregate data from the OECD Family Database, we identify evidence that being employed significantly increases the probability of a second birth among women. However, the magnitude of the effect differs across individuals. The positive effect is more pronounced among the most educated women and those whose spouse is employed. The fact that both spouses are working thus favors the expansion of the family from one to two children more than other configurations. Multilevel models also show that the positive effect of employment on the transition to a second birth is stronger in countries with a high supply of child care services. The expansion of such services at the country level, which is the most effective family policy measure for ensuring women's labor force participation, increases the individual probability that a woman will have a second child, which is less true for other types of institutional support (parental leave systems, lump sum allowances, etc.).

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This article gives evidence that differences in completed fertility among European countries emerge mainly as a result of fewer women having a second child in low fertility countries and analyses the impact of women’s employment on the probability of second child birth. With longitudinal data from the European Survey of Income and Living conditions (EU-SILC) and aggregated data from the OECD Family Database, we find that, on average within European countries, women in stable employment have a significantly higher probability of second childbirth than inactive or unemployed women. However, while female employment generally favours a transition to second childbirth in high-fertility countries, the impact is heterogenous in low-fertility countries. This points to a work-life balance conflict that is stronger in low-fertility countries. To address this issue, multilevel models are run to compare the role of various policies: not surprisingly, they show that childcare policies – which are the most effective policies to secure women’s employment – are the most likely to encourage couples to enlarge their families and that the positive effect of stable employment on fertility is reinforced by this policy.

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This article gives evidence that differences in completed fertility among European countries emerge mainly as a result of fewer women having a second child in low fertility countries and analyses the impact of women's employment on the probability of second child birth. With longitudinal data from the European Survey of Income and Living conditions (EU-SILC) and aggregated data from the OECD Family Database, we find that, on average within European countries, women in stable employment have a significantly higher probability of second childbirth than inactive or unemployed women. However, while female employment generally favours a transition to second childbirth in high-fertility countries, the impact is heterogenous in low-fertility countries. This points to a work-life balance conflict that is stronger in low-fertility countries. To address this issue, multilevel models are run to compare the role of various policies: not surprisingly, they show that childcare policies – which are the most effective policies to secure women's employment – are the most likely to encourage couples to enlarge their families and that the positive effect of stable employment on fertility is reinforced by this policy.

This article gives evidence that differences in completed fertility among European countries emerge mainly as a result of fewer women having a second child in low fertility countries and analyses the impact of women’s employment on the probability of second child birth. With longitudinal data from the European Survey of Income and Living conditions (EU-SILC) and aggregated data from the OECD Family Database, we find that, on average within European countries, women in stable employment have a significantly higher probability of second childbirth than inactive or unemployed women. However, while female employment generally favours a transition to second childbirth in high-fertility countries, the impact is heterogenous in low-fertility countries. This points to a work-life balance conflict that is stronger in low-fertility countries. To address this issue, multilevel models are run to compare the role of various policies: not surprisingly, they show that childcare policies – which are the most effective policies to secure women’s employment – are the most likely to encourage couples to enlarge their families and that the positive effect of stable employment on fertility is reinforced by this policy.

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In the light of the recent reversal of fertility trends in several highly developed countries, we investigate the impact of economic development and its components on fertility in OECD countries from 1960 to 2007. We find that the strong negative correlation between GDP per capita and fertility does no longer hold for high levels of per capita economic output. the relation instead seems to turn into positive from a certain threshold level of economic development on. Survival of an inverse J-shaped association between GDP per capita and fertility is found when controlling for birth postponement, omitted variable bias, non-stationarity and endogeneity. However, gaps between actual and predicted fertility rates show implicitly the importance of factors influencing fertility above and over per capita income. By decomposing GDP per capita into several components, we identify female employment as co-varying factor for the fertility rebound that can be observed in several highly developed countries. Pointing out to important differences with regard to the compatibility between childbearing and female employment, our results suggest that fertility increases are likely to be small if economic development is not accompanied by institutional changes that improve parents' opportunities to combine work and family life.

This paper presents new information on trends in family and child outcomes and policies over the past decades, in order to assess whether there has been any convergence over time across OECD and EU countries. Important drivers of population structure such as life expectancy and fertility rates are becoming more similar across countries as are marriage and divorce rates. Increased educational attainment has contributed to greater female employment participation and convergence therein across countries. Child well-being outcomes show a more mixed pattern with improvements and convergence in infant mortality, but varying trends in child poverty across countries.

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We examine how strongly fertility trends respond to family policies in OECD countries. In the light of the recent fertility rebound observed in several OECD countries, we empirically test the impact of different family policy instruments on fertility, using macro panel data from 18 OECD countries that spans the years 1982-2007. Our results confirm that each instrument of the family policy package (paid leave, childcare services and financial transfers) has a positive influence on average, suggesting that the combination of these forms of support for working parents during their children's early years is likely to facilitate parents' choice to have children. Policy levers do not all have the same weight, however: in-cash benefits covering childhood after the year of childbirth and the provision of childcare services for children under age three have a larger potential influence on fertility than leave entitlements and benefits granted around childbirth. Moreover, we find that the influence of each policy measure varies across different family policy contexts. Our findings are robust after controlling for birth postponement, endogeneity, time-lagged fertility reactions and for different aspects of national contexts, such as female labour market participation, unemployment, labour market protection and the proportion of children born out of marriage.

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This paper analyses the response of female labour force participation to the evolution of labour markets and policies supporting the reconciliation of work and family life. Using country-level data from the early 1980s for 18 OECD countries, we estimate the influence of labour market and institutional characteristics on female labour force participation, and full-time and part-time employment participation. The relationship (interactions, complementarity) between different policy measures is also analyzed, as well as potential variations in the influence of policies across different Welfare regimes. The results first highlight how the increase in female educational attainment, the expansion of the service sector the increase in parttime employment opportunities have boosted women’s participation in the labour force. By contrast, there is no such clear relationship between female employment rates and the growing share of public employment. Employment rates react to changes in tax rates, in leave policies, but the rising provision of childcare formal services to working parents with children not yet three years old is a main policy driver of female labour force participation. Different policy instruments interact with each other to improve overall effectiveness. In particular, the coverage of childcare services is found to have a greater effect on women’s participation in the labour market in countries with relatively high degrees of employment protection. The effect of childcare services on female full-time employment is particularly strong in Anglophone and Nordic countries. In all, the findings suggest that the effect of childcare services on female employment is stronger in the presence of other measures supporting working mothers (as, for instance paid parental leave) while the presence of such supports seems to reduce the effectiveness of financial incentives to work for second earners. The effect of cash benefits for families and the duration of paid leave on female labour force participation also vary across welfare regimes.

Our thesis proposes a comparative analysis of women's work-family coordination behaviors in Europe. First, a critical review of the foundations of microeconomic models of labor supply is presented. It is shown that, by considering that the relationships established between family members have only an instrumental value, "standard" utilitarian approaches operate a reductionism that is unable to grasp the heterogeneity of the trade-offs made in terms of job/family coordination. Against this line of argument, we suggest, in the second part, that these trade-offs vary according to the nature of the relationships valued by the spouses in the household, and imply alternative "models" of job/family coordination. We then argue that countries provide varying degrees of support for these different models through their policies and the institutional system set up to regulate employment/family relations. Regime differences were then identified describing the coherences established between types of policies and the privilege given to certain models, adapting for this purpose the typology of Welfare regimes identified by ESPING-ANDERSEN. This distinction has allowed us to make certain hypotheses about the different configurations of relations between the family formation process and the female labor supply to be observed in Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the relevance of which is verified in the third part of the thesis on the basis of the European Labor Force Surveys published annually from 1992 to 1999. The perspective opened by the European Employment Strategy to promote women's participation in employment is finally discussed.

A critical review of the foundations of microeconomic models of labor supply is first presented, which shows the inability of utilitarian approaches to capture the heterogeneity of the trade-offs made in job-family coordination. Against this line of argument, we suggest that these trade-offs vary according to the nature of the relationships valued by the spouses in the household, and imply alternative models of job-family coordination. We then argue that countries provide varying degrees of support for these different models through the institutions set up to regulate employment/family relations. Regime differences are identified describing the coherences established between certain models and types of policies, adapting for this purpose the typology of welfare state regimes identified by Esping-Andersen. Some hypotheses on the relationships between the family formation process and female labor supply to be observed in five European countries are examined in the last part of the thesis based on the "Labor Force Surveys".