Family Size and Subjective Well-Being in Europe: Do More Children Make Parents (Un)Happy?

Abstract

Using SILC data we show that having an additional child results in lower levels of subjective well-being among parents with small children, but higher or unchanged levels among parents of teenagers. Multiple births are used as the source of exogenous variation and we show that this is the best strategy given the data structure and the European context. We conclude that higher fertility levels might be reached if parents receive more help during the early years of their children and if the positive future effects of having large families are publicized.