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The article focuses on several demographic and socio-economic idiosyncrasies in Central and Eastern Europe, which impact the process of population ageing and intergenerational relations. These include the adverse mortality trends and especially the excess male mortality in certain countries, which exacerbated sex differences in life expectancy beyond anything ever recorded in peace-time population history, the combination of natural population decrease and net emigration, the disordered cohort flows and the shorter generational length. The rapid demographic change in these countries coincided with political, economic and social transformations. The shock of the fall of communism affected differently younger people, who could relatively easily reorganize their life cycles so as to adapt to the changed circumstances, and older persons for whom such reorganization was more difficult, or even impossible. This created the possibility for the opening of an intergenerational rift, as older generations felt being the losers of the transition. The article explores the implications of these idiosyncrasies and social context for living arrangements, kin networks, individual wellbeing and inter-generational relations, and identifies areas where particular challenges are likely to be faced when it comes to policies and programs aimed at older persons.

This article builds on research in psychology, economics, and other fields, suggesting that, under certain conditions, extrinsic incentives could undermine intrinsic motivation, producing results opposite to those originally intended. It explores the relevance of these findings for population policies and particularly for pronatalist measures, and argues that reproductive behavior is intrinsically motivated, thus potentially subject to having the intrinsic motivation for childbearing adversely affected by policy interventions. Specifically, it examines whether, when, and how the contingency, universe, adequacy, and other aspects of pronatalist incentives could affect childbearing motivation. For example, parity-targeted incentives seeking to compel higher fertility could be perceived as controlling and undermine that motivation. Conversely, policies seeking to facilitate combining work and family responsibilities could strengthen the intrinsic motivation for childbearing.

I examined ethnic intermarriage in the former Yugoslavia to determine the prevalence of exogamy there if exogamy has increased since World War II. A better understanding of this problem may offer important insights into the current events in the former Yugoslavia. Using marriage registration data, I apply log-linear models to distinguish the effects of changes in the marginal distribution of spouses' traits from patterns that reflect the association between these traits. The results show that the widespread perception that intermarriage occurred frequently is an exaggeration--over the last three decades there has been no clear increase in the rates of intermarriage. Further, social barriers have hindered interactions (and intermarriage) among three cultural traditions present in the former Yugoslavia--a Western tradition among Slovenes and Croats, who have been under Austro-Hungarian rule and are predominantly Catholic; an endemic Balkan cultural tradition among Serbs, Montenegrins, and Macedonians, who have been part of the Ottoman Empire and are predominantly Eastern Orthodox; and a Middle-Eastern cultural tradition among most of the Islamic populations.

The question posed in the title of the international conference organised by the Vienna Institute of Demography in 2007 seems to be increasingly on the minds of policy makers, the academic community and the public at large. This is understandable, given that throughout most of Europe, period fertility indicators have reached very low levels and countries are facing rapidly changing age structures along with the prospect of population decrease. The mixed evidence about the effect of existing policies aimed at influencing fertility and the growing number of countries throughout Europe pursuing such policies suggest that the question of whether policies can enhance fertility in Europe needs to be asked in conjunction with another question, namely whether it is worthwhile to pursue policies aimed at enhancing fertility, given the uncertainty of their outcome. This second question can be answered affirmatively, if policies contribute to having healthier, better educated future generations, parents can combine their work and family responsibilities more easily, these policies are fiscally and economically feasible and sustainable, respect all rights and freedoms and are coherent with the policies pursued in other domains. The last statement raises at least two additional questions. Adapted from the source document.

A sample from the 1989 Soviet census is used to study the ethnic composition of families in the Russian Federation on the eve of the breakup of the Soviet Union. The aim is to gain insight into the consequences of the Soviet \"nationalities policy\" through examining the marriage patterns of different ethnic groups and the nature of the relations between these groups. The analysis is based on general log-linear models. The main findings are: there was a relatively well-pronounced tendency toward endogamy; Russians were the least endogamous, while Chechens were the most endogamous among the 11 ethnic groups included in the analysis; \"zones of attraction\" related to exogamy were well discernible, the two most pronounced being within the Eastern Slav and Turkic groups; testing for cohort effects revealed a decrease in endogamy when older and middle cohorts were compared, while the differences between middle and younger cohorts were in many cases not statistically significant.

Analysis of the fertility decline in Bulgaria shows that the perception of Bulgaria as an 'anomaly' in terms of its demographic development is based on a conservative interpretation of the demographic transition theory. The features that distinguish Bulgaria from the western European countries (faster decline, persistence of early and universal marriages, etc.) are generally accounted for by the specific social, economic, cultural, and political conditions. These findings suggest that the speed of the fertility decline and the means through which it is achieved are affected by a complex interaction between cultural and economic factors that are often difficult to distinguish in terms of primacy.