Work package leader

Tomáš Sobotka
Vienna Institute of Demography
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Wohllebengasse 12-14, 6th floor
1040 Vienna
Austria
E-mail: tomas.sobotka@oeaw.ac.at

Objectives

• Synthesize policy-oriented findings in work packages 2 to 6 and outline the policy environment of fertility decisions and births in Europe.
• Draw policy-relevant implications on fertility decisions.
• Identify potential prospective directions for policy enhancement.

Description of work

The European Commission’s White Paper The demographic future of Europe – from challenge to opportunity (COM (2006) 271 final) clearly expresses the need for governmental action. The main task of this work package is to enrich the interface between demographic research and policy action by providing policy-makers with information about reproductive decision-making and births in a broad societal environment. Tasks include:

Task 1: Collect policy-relevant information from the preceding work packages. Carry out a synthesis of the collected information for the purpose to outline domains of different policies, their goals, objects and interactions. Carry out a comparative analysis by welfare. Identify policies that interact in a co-beneficial or in a contradictory way.

Task 2: Organize the work of the Steering Board with the purpose to consolidate the existing broad range of ideas and suggestions towards a tangible set of principles and recommendations on policy issues as well as on directions to which research focus should be sharpened.

Task 3: Draw conclusions of use to stakeholders.

Deliverables

• The state of the art: a review.
• Synthesis of policy-relevant information.
• Reproductive decision-making in a macro-micro perspective: policy implications.