Policy Insights

Erich Striessnig (Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital) looks at how we can measure the progress of all these Sustainable Development Goals when the ‘Final list of proposed indicators’ contains 230 items?

In a recent paper published in the prestigious journal <em>Demography</em>, Massimo Anelli and Nicoletta Balbo asked the question: what would have happened to fertility levels in Italy if this massive emigration flow had not happened? Through this exercise, they could also understand what effect the recession on fertility levels would have been in the absence of out-migration.

<p>Commuting tends to vary over an individual’s life course: Looking specifically at women entering motherhood, they tend to reduce their commute when transitioning to parenthood. Almost one in three of the mothers surveyed by Thomas Skora, Heiko Rüger & Nico Stawarz (German Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)) reduced their commuting distance substantially after the birth of the first child, leading to significant wage cuts.</p>
<p> </p>

<p>A study by Helen Kowalewska (Oxford University) and Agnese Vitali (University of Trento) suggests it is time for policies to recognise the economic fragility of female-breadwinner couples. The gendered division of paid and unpaid work within couples has transformed across industrialised countries in recent decades. In analysing this change, policymakers and academics have endorsed the ‘social investment’ agenda, promoting a shift from male-breadwinning to ‘dual-breadwinning’ among partners.</p>

<p>Per Engzell, Arun Frey & Mark Verhagen of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, Oxford University find that during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the Netherlands, students learned less than during a normal year. These results highlight the costs of keeping students out of schools and of the difficulties in compensating for these costs.</p>

<p>The risk of dying from COVID-19 is for individuals aged 70 and older in Stockholm County who live in the same household as a person of working age was 60 per cent higher compared with older people who live with other old individuals, find Maria Brandén and colleagues (Stockholm University Demography Unit).</p>

<p>Our ability to predict migration patterns is limited. Mathias Czaika and Jakub Bijak of the Horizon 2020 project QuantMig tell us five facts everyone should know before discussing future migration trends.</p>

<p>Despite an increasing number of empirical studies about the impact of climate change on migration, there is no scientific consensus as to what extent and under which conditions environmental factors influence migration. To fill this gap, Roman Hoffmann (Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital) and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis on the relationship between environmental change and migration.</p>

<p>Andreas Backhaus of the German Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) summarises six potential pitfalls that can arise in the interpretation of coronavirus data. These pitfalls have the potential to mislead the public debate and thereby the course of future policy actions.</p>

<p>Francesco Billari of Bocconi University argues that the European Union must use COVID-19 crisis exit funds to prioritise investment in children and the institutions that shape them, their schools and families. These funds would be, if well-orchestrated, a social investment: Improving the life chances of children would diminish inequalities in the long term, and at the same time it would increase human capital, leading to economic growth in the long run.</p>