Family Policy and Fertility Intentions in 21 European Countries

European countries show substantial variation in family policy and in the extent to which policies support more traditional male-breadwinner or more gender egalitarian earner-carer family arrangements. Using data from the European Social Survey, the authors implemented multilevel models to analyze variation in fertility intentions of 16,000 men and women according to individual-level characteristics and family policy across 21 European countries. Both traditional and earner-carer family support generosity were positively related to first-birth intentions for men and women. In contrast, only earner-carer support maintains its positive relationship with second birth intentions. Family policy is not in general related to third and higher order parity intentions.