PhD Student in Sociology at Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

About me

I’m Martin, a Sociology PhD Student at the University of Oxford. I’m working on fertility intentions and fertility in the life course with a special attention to the gap between intended and realized fertility. I did projects in the US and Australia, using Data from the NLSY79 as well has HILDA.

My academic journey began at Humboldt University in Berlin, where I earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Social Sciences. It was during this time that I developed a strong foundation in quantitative research methods, particularly sequence analysis and life course research—tools that now play a central role in my work.

Originally from Berlin, I still hold a deep affection for the city despite now calling Oxford home. Outside Academia, I enjoy traveling, attending concerts, and pursuing photography as a creative outlet. While I’m an enthusiastic (albeit beginner) photographer, I occasionally share my work on my Photography homepage.

Thanks for stopping by :)

My research

My research examines fertility intentions and how they evolve over the life course. I am interested in the gap between the number of children people say they would like to have and the number they ultimately have — a pattern that characterises many affluent societies. Rather than treating fertility intentions as fixed preferences, I approach them as dynamic and embedded in changing economic, relational, and institutional contexts.

Taking a life-course perspective, I study how childbearing plans are formed, revised, postponed, or realised over time. A central focus of my work is the role of employment and income, particularly within couples. I analyse how partners’ earnings, employment trajectories, and economic stability shape both fertility intentions and their realisation. By adopting a couples’ perspective, I examine fertility decision-making as a relational and gendered process rather than an individual one.

Methodologically, I work with longitudinal survey data and quantitative panel approaches to trace how changes in employment, income, and partnership dynamics intersect with shifts in fertility plans and outcomes. This allows me to move beyond static models of decision-making and instead capture the temporal processes through which reproductive intentions are sustained, adapted, or abandoned.

More broadly, my research speaks to debates on low fertility, labour market uncertainty, and gender inequality. By analysing how structural economic conditions shape intimate family decisions across the life course, I aim to contribute to a clearer understanding of why reproductive aspirations are often not realised — and what this reveals about contemporary family formation.