Within the context of economic recession and enduring low fertility, this paper aims to enrich this discussion by comparing the different impact of fertility behavior and compositional factors on male and female fertility. Analysis relies on period counts of births - broken down by demographic and socio-economic attributes such as sex, age, education level and employment status, annually provided by the Hellenic Statistical Authority.

Fertility reactions to economic recession vary with gender and age. Decline was more pronounced for men than for women as well as for younger than for older ages. Women above the age of 35 form the only age-group with rising fertility during recession. Since 2008, male TFR has been increasing for each education and employment sub-group here examined; yet the total TFR declined. This suggests that the compositional effect has been crucial for male fertility declines observed during recession. Total female TFR dropped by about the same amount but, clearly, not due to the same reason. According to employment-and-education-specific female fertility rates, that fall was the result of concomitant decreasing fertility rates across all groups except that of low-and-medium-educated employed women. This implies that the compositional effect is less important for women than for men.