Do neighbourhoods have an influence on reproductive intentions? Empirical evidence from Milan

Abstract

This paper studies the influence of the context on reproductive intentions with reference to an Italian metropolitan area. Usually available Italian data do not allow examination of territorial detail further than that on a municipal scale, thus, forcing to consider small informative data on the context. In this paper, suitable data sources referring to sub-municipal detail, such that defined by the 20 districts of the city of Milan, are used to obtain very informative contextual data. This allows us to examine the context "close up" and to study how it influences reproductive intentions. Results show that some contextual aspects influence reproductive orientations.