Economics Research Seminar – Dr Giulia Briselli

Title: Are Men’s Attitudes Holding Back Fertility and Women’s Careers? Evidence from Europe 

Date: Wednesday 29 April 2026

Time: 13:30 to 14:30

Venue: NUBS.4.23

If you would like to attend, please register using the following link

Are Men’s Attitudes Holding Back Fertility and Women’s Careers? Evidence from Europe 

Speaker:           Dr Giulia Briselli (ESCP Business School)

Giulia Briselli is an Assistant Professor of Economics at ESCP Europe, in the Turin Campus. She is an Applied Microeconomist with research interests in Family, Migration and Culture Economics. She obtained her PhD at the University of Turin and Collegio Carlo Alberto, Italy. Before joining ESCP Turin, she joined ESCP Paris as a Postdoctoral Scholand and prior to that, she worked as a Research Fellow at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain.

In her research, she focuses on the determinants and the outcomes of migration and family formation. She analyzes how migration, social norms and economic policies affect fertility rates, marriage, and labor market outcomes.

Briselli Giulia | ESCP Business School

Abstract:

We propose that men’s reluctance to increase their participation in childcare and household chores is an important factor keeping both fertility and women’s employment low in Europe. We first show that, over time, European women express a stronger desire for men increasing their participation in home production. This trend is not observed for men. We propose a toy model of the household that illustrates how men’s refusal to contribute to childcare can have negative effects on both fertility and women’s labor supply. Finally, we use cross-country panel data and a two-way fixed effects specification to show that countries where the gender divergence in attitudes is more pronounced display both lower birth rates and lower female employment rates.