Interdisciplinary Seminar in Economic History: “Fertility decline and the gendered consequences of technological change in Denmark”
24/03/2026 (Seminars)
Bank of Greece, DIESOI
The Historical Archives of the Bank of Greece, in the context of the Interdisciplinary Seminar in Economic History, jointly organised with the Athens University of Economics and Business and Panteion University, invite you to the lecture entitled:
“Fertility decline and the gendered consequences of technological change in Denmark”
Speaker: Xanthi Tsoukli (Otto-Friedrich Universität Bamberg, Germany)
A few words on the topic:
The speaker will present the results of a study she conducted in collaboration with Nina Boberg-Fazlic (TU Dortmund University), Markus Lampe (Vienna University of Economics and Business) and Paul Sharp (University of Southern Denmark). Their work examines how technological change contributes to fertility transitions in rural, agrarian societies, in the context of late nineteenth-century Denmark, where the introduction of the automatic cream-milk separator mechanised butter production and displaced women from traditional roles in home-based dairying. Using census microdata and a difference-in-differences strategy, they find that farming households experienced a significant decline in fertility following the spread of this technology. The results suggest that fertility declined not because women gained new economic opportunities, but because they lost existing ones. This challenges standard accounts that link fertility decline to female empowerment and wage labour, and highlights a novel mechanism: gendered technological displacement. This work shows that fertility transitions can occur even in the absence of urbanisation or industrial employment, reshaping how we understand the demographic consequences of rural modernisation.
The sessions are held between 17:00-19:00 at the Museum of the Bank of Greece, 3 Amerikis Street, Athens, and are open to the public, without requiring prior registration. The lecture will be delivered in English.
The complete programme of upcoming lectures is available on the website of the Interdisciplinary Seminar in Economic History.
Relevant link:
Poster of the event