The associations of cash transfers with parental investment and couples' fertility among low-income Serbian Roma.

Abstract

Welfare incentives, by providing parents access to certain resources, may increase the reliability of parental investment returns and thus increase opportunities to invest in offspring quality vs. quantity and eventually a drop in fertility. Using the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 6 for Serbian Roma, this study examined whether improvements in resources, driven by cash transfers, encouraged parental greater engagement per child and a drop in fertility. The sample included 1095 Roma couples whereas a couple's number of biological children by number of years married was used as a proxy for fertility. The results imply that Roma parental response to shifts in environmental risk did not result in more parental time and lower birth rate: parental investment was lower in the welfare households, presently associated with a higher birth rate. Roma paternal investment dropped in the presence of stepchildren and rose in the presence of biological children, allowing mothers to divert their attention to reproduction. Cash transfers may compensate for the additional costs of an extra child and maintain fertility. Despite the amounts received, or the assumed improvements brought about, the changes may have not be perceived as sufficient enough to cause a shift in parental behavior and a drop in fertility.