Low fertility in the Czech Republic - Did the country miss out on the optimal time for fertility recuperation?
Abstract
Following a sharp drop in the 1990s a surge in the total fertility rate from 1.1 to 1.5 was registered in the Czech Republic in the 2000s. This increase was associated with a recuperation influenced by improvements in family policy.
Using both demographic and survey data and taking France as the reference country we argue that the potential for fertility recuperation was not fully realised due to delayed measures in the Czech Republic. We document that the generations which initiated the postponement of childbearing have not fulfilled their plans of establishing a two-child family by their mid-thirties.
Women of 35 and over are less receptive to improved family support if they lacked favourable conditions when they were in their late twenties or early thirties. The Czech situation differs considerably from that of France where long-term family policies have created the stable conditions necessary for the optimal timing of family formation.