Despite having similar economies and political systems, high-income
nations show persistent diversity. In this pioneering work, Fred C.
Pampel looks at fertility, suicide, and homicide rates in eighteen
high-income nations to show how they are affected by institutional
structures. European nations, for example, offer universal public
benefits for men and women who are unable to work and have policies to
ease the burdens of working mothers. The United States, in contrast,
does not. This study demonstrates how public policy differences such as
these affect childbearing among working women, moderate pressures for
suicide and homicide among the young and old, and shape sex difference
in suicide and homicide.
The Institutional Context of Population Change cuts across numerous
political and sociological topics, including political sociology,
stratification, sex and gender, and aging. It persuasively shows the
importance of public policies for understanding the demographic
consequences of population change and the importance of demographic
change for understanding the consequences of public policies.