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This thesis examines the phenomenon of childlessness and its manifestation across Europe in association with ideas of Hajnal's west and east division of Europe. I explore whether other potentially correlated factors explain this division. Specifically, contextual factors such as accession to the European Union or individual factors such as educational level or values associated with the Second Demographic Transition may explain the association with the Hajnal line. The data set used for analysis comes from World Values Survey 6 and stepwise logistic regression was used on women born 1959-1975. Results revealed that Hajnal's East and West division of Europe matters in terms of childlessness, and belonging to Western Europe increases the odds of staying childless, yet, the association between childlessness and European Union membership is robust, as well. Hajnal indicator appeared to absorb the difference in childlessness related to traditional values adherence, while positive association between tertiary education and childlessness revealed to be more robust in all contexts. The models have shown that accession with European Union is positively associated with childlessness and societies of EU are more likely to stay childless. The study has shown that a clear geographical or regional difference in childlessness can be identified, but whether it is related to cultural factors discussed by Hajnal or the developments related to EU accession is still not clear.

This study focuses on the difference between northern and southern Italy concering the correlation between total fertility rate (TFR) and female employment rate (FER) using pronvicial-level data. Theories demonstrate that the correlation can either be negative or positive, although it has been showed in the past decades that this correlation between nations is positive throughout the developed countries. This phenomenon has been descripted by van de Kaa (2002) and Lesthaeghe (2010) as the second demographic transition. With regards of Italy, previous studies focusing on the country’s 20 regions have also found a positive correlation (Rondinelli and Zizza 2010). Furthermore, the Italian context is explained with special regards towards the deep cultural and socio-economical differences between northern and southern Italy. The divide is confirmed by statistical data. Furthermore, a regression analysis controls the correlation between TFR and FER against relevant variables and finds surprisingly a positive correlation in the north and a negative correlation in the south, where a fertility postponement mechanism is present. Conservative gender roles and economic underdevelopment can be seen as the cause of this divide, although there are signs of change.

The paper uses data from 2003 Multiscopo Italian Survey to estimate education effects on fertility and in particular to determine how and to what degree does unobserved heterogeneity influence the estimated effects, that is to say how unobserved heterogeneity might bias estimates of effects of education on transition to 1st, 2nd and 3rd births. The peculiarity of this study is the implementation of a multiprocess approach, which allows for a broader and more efficient view of the phenomenon, studying jointly the transition to first, second and third or higher order births. In doing this I will use control variables, in particular educational level of the mother and her siblings (i.e. partner and grandmother), to detect possible influences of education in childbearing timing. Moreover, this topic has not yet been analysed using Italian data, in particular using Multiscopo Survey data and it may produce interesting comparisons with regard to other European countries, where the topic has already been addressed. In this study I will prove that number of siblings is the variable, which has a significative and relevant effect in all the models considered and that women partner’s education has an up-and-down effect on transition to childbearing. Moreover, the inclusion of unobserved characteristics of women has an important role in understanding transition to childbearing, being positive and significant.