November 22, 2016 (D350)
Marianna Battaglia
(University of Alicante)
Segregation and Fertility: the Case of the Roma in Serbia
Abstract: We study the effect of residential segregation on fertility for the socially excluded and marginalized Roma ethnic minority. Using original survey data we collected in Serbia, we investigate whether fertility differs between more and less segregated neighborhoods. Because of sorting, the ethnic composition of a neighborhood is instrumented by (il)legal possibility to build in the area at the time of its creation. Our results show that Roma in less segregated areas tend to have fewer children and exhibit a higher preference for having at least one boy. While birth spacing is not significantly different across neighborhoods after girls, after boys women in less segregated areas tend to take much more time before the next birth. A possible mechanism is that less segregated areas tend to be more exposed to the Serbian culture, in which fertility tends to be low and boys are preferred.