An agent-based model of intergenerational fertility patterns

Jason Hilton, University of Southampton
Jakub Bijak, University of Southampton

Agent-based modelling is an approach gaining traction in demography due to its ability to link the micro- and macro-levels of aggregation. The key benefit of this approach is that it allows individual level causal mechanisms that are hypothesised to lie behind macro-level patterns to be formalised and their plausibility tested. This paper aims at applying this approach to an existing theory which relates waves in macro-level fertility to a individual-level desire to delay childbearing until reaching a level of well-being commensurate with that achieved by one's parents.