A dyadic approach to the study of perceived infertility and contraceptive use

Summary: There is an increasing literature on women’s perception of infertility and contraceptive use, with many studies showing that it is related to unintended pregnancy. Little research investigates the correlates of perceived infertility, and quantitative investigation of couple-level perceived infertility appears absent from the literature, which is somewhat surprising, as infertility is a couple-level outcome. Furthermore, most studies that relate to perceived infertility and use of contraception, or lack thereof, are typically limited to young adults. This is the first paper to explore factors associated with perceived infertility using dyads rather than individuals as the unit of analysis and to investigate the relationship between perceived infertility and contraceptive use among a nationally representative sample of couples.

Presenter: Ms Ester Lazzari (The Australian National University)

Ester Lazzari holds a BSc and MSc in Economics and Social Sciences from Bocconi University in Milan (Italy) and she is a final year doctoral student in the School of Demography at the Australian National University. Her main research interests focus on the causes and consequences of late fertility, assisted reproductive technology and childlessness.

Trying again: Reconciling after cohabitation and marital separation

Summary: There is a large and growing literature looking at who remains single and who repartners after relationship dissolution. Most of the literature on repartnering considers new relationships, however, some couples that separate reconcile. Very little is currently known about the prevalence of reconciliation and the characteristics of couples who chose to try again following a relationship dissolution. Most of the literature on repartnering with the same partner is called ‘cyclical’, ‘churning’, or ‘on-and-off’ relationships and most is based on dating couples or young adults. We use Waves 1-19 of HILDA to estimate the prevalence and correlates of reconciliation among cohabiting and marital relationships that dissolve.

Presenter: Professor Edith Gray (The Australian National University)

Professor Edith Gray is a family demographer and Head of the School of Demography at the Australian National University. Edith specialises in the use of survey data to analyse fertility and family change and has made significant contributions to understanding contemporary patterns of Australian society. Her research has been published in leading journals including the Journal of Marriage and Family, Demography, and Population, Space and Place. Edith is a Council member of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, and member of a number of Government advisory committees.

Life-partners as career-allies? Exploring the wage effects of same-occupation couples. Evidence from Australia

Summary: Recent trends in the pathway through which individuals sort into homogeneous marriages suggest that several partners follow similar careers, however, little is known about this subgroup within dual-earner couples. This study fills the gap by examining the wage effects of partners who work in similar occupations.

Presenter: Mr Filippos Maraziotis (University of York)

Filippos obtained his BSc in International and European Economics from Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) with ‘Excellent‘, scoring the highest GPA of his cohort. He also holds an MSc in Economics and Public Policy with a ‘Distinction‘ from the University of York. Filippos is currently a PhD student in Economics at the Department of Economics and Related Studies (DERS) at the University of York, supervised by Professor Karen Mumford. He is interested in Applied Microeconometrics with applications spanning the fields of Gender, Family, and Labour Economics. Filippos' current research projects focus on gender norms, partners, and labour market outcomes.