MPIDR Working Paper

Fertility and spatial mobility: evidence from Austria

Abstract

There is a growing body of literature looking at the interplay between an individual’s residential and other careers in the life-course. Previous research has mostly studied the impact of partnership and employment changes on spatial mobility. This paper focuses on the effect of childbearing on migrations and residential moves. We base our study on retrospective event-history data from Austria and apply intensity regression. Our analysis shows, first, that the birth of a child triggers housing- and environment-related residential relocations. Second, it significantly reduces couples’ wish and chances of moving over long distances for a job. The event of first conception also induces moves related to partnership formation.