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More Schooling, More Children

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Author Info

  • Fort, Margherita

    (Department of Economics, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy)

  • Schneeweis, Nicole

    (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria)

  • Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf

    (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, and Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Austria)

Abstract

We study the relationship between education and fertility, exploiting compulsory schooling reforms in Europe as source of exogenous variation in education. Using data from 8 European countries, we assess the causal effect of education on the number of biological kids and the incidence of childlessness. We find that more education causes a substantial decrease in childlessness and an increase in the average number of children per woman. Our findings are robust to a number of falsification checks and we can provide complementary empirical evidence on the mechanisms leading to these surprising results.

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File URL: http://www.ihs.ac.at/publications/eco/es-281.pdf
File Function: First version, 2011
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Institute for Advanced Studies in its series Economics Series with number 281.

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Length: 40 pages
Date of creation: Dec 2011
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ihs:ihsesp:281

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Related research

Keywords: Instrumental variables; education; fertility;

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References

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  1. Brunello, Giorgio & Fabbri, Daniele & Fort, Margherita, 2009. "Years of Schooling, Human Capital and the Body Mass Index of European Females," IZA Discussion Papers 4667, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  2. Osili, Una Okonkwo & Long, Bridget Terry, 2008. "Does female schooling reduce fertility? Evidence from Nigeria," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 57-75, August.
  3. Brunello, Giorgio & Fort, Margherita & Schneeweis, Nicole & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2011. "The Causal Effect of Education on Health," Economics Series 280, Institute for Advanced Studies.
  4. Giorgio Brunello & Margherita Fort & Guglielmo Weber, 2009. "Changes in Compulsory Schooling, Education and the Distribution of Wages in Europe," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 516-539, 03.
  5. Justin McCrary & Heather Royer, 2006. "The Effect of Female Education on Fertility and Infant Health: Evidence from School Entry Policies Using Exact Date of Birth," NBER Working Papers 12329, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Namkee Ahn & Pedro Mira, . "A note on the changing relationship between fertility and female employment rates in developed countries," Studies on the Spanish Economy 13, FEDEA.
  7. Garrouste, Christelle, 2010. "100 years of educational reforms in Europe: a contextual database," MPRA Paper 31853, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  8. SandraE. Black & PaulJ. Devereux & KjellG. Salvanes, 2008. "Staying in the Classroom and out of the maternity ward? The effect of compulsory schooling laws on teenage births," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(530), pages 1025-1054, 07.
  9. Lars Lefgren & Frank McIntyre, 2006. "The Relationship between Women's Education and Marriage Outcomes," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(4), pages 787-830, October.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Giorgio Brunello & Margherita Fort & Nicole Schneeweis & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2012. "The Causal Effect of Education on Health: What is the Role of Health Behaviors?," ISER Discussion Paper 0836, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
  2. Vikesh Amin & Jere R. Behrman, 2011. "Do More-Schooled Women have Fewer Children and Delay Childbearing? Evidence from a Sample of U.S. Twins," PIER Working Paper Archive 11-041, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.

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