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Age of Majority and Women’s Early Human Capital Accumulation in Australia

Author

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  • Cragun, Randy
  • Chatterjee, Ishita

Abstract

Past research has suggested that Common Law restrictions may have prevented minors from obtaining oral contraceptives (the pill) without parental consent and that, thus, reductions in the age at which a woman became a legal adult could work through access to the pill to increase incomes, educational attainment, and participation in occupations previously dominated by men, but these age of majority changes are often confounded with other relevant legal changes. Because Australian states had similar reasons for lowering their ages of majority around the same time as US states did but did not enact other youth consent or pill access measures around the same time, we use state-specific variation in Australian age of majority laws and estimate effects on schooling attainment and life-cycle incomes, finding that living under an age of majority of 18 rather than 21 decreased women's weekly earnings slightly in their 20s and increased their earnings at later ages and increased their probability of bachelor degree attainment by around 1.5 percentage points (from a baseline of 14%).

Suggested Citation

  • Cragun, Randy & Chatterjee, Ishita, 2020. "Age of Majority and Women’s Early Human Capital Accumulation in Australia," MPRA Paper 100874, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 25 May 2020.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:100874
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cragun, Randy, 2019. "Effects of lower ages of majority on oral contraceptive use: Evidence on the validity of The Power of the Pill," MPRA Paper 100871, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 03 Jun 2020.
    2. Mincer, Jacob, 1997. "The Production of Human Capital and the Life Cycle of Earnings: Variations on a Theme," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 26-47, January.
    3. Martha J. Bailey, 2013. "Fifty Years of Family Planning: New Evidence on the Long-Run Effects of Increasing Access to Contraception," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 44(1 (Spring), pages 341-409.
    4. Steingrimsdottir, Herdis, 2016. "Reproductive rights and the career plans of U.S. college freshmen," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 29-41.
    5. Martha J. Bailey, 2006. "More Power to the Pill: The Impact of Contraceptive Freedom on Women's Life Cycle Labor Supply," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(1), pages 289-320.
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    1. Cragun, Randy, 2019. "Effects of lower ages of majority on oral contraceptive use: Evidence on the validity of The Power of the Pill," MPRA Paper 100871, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 03 Jun 2020.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    the pill; age of majority; power of the pill; human capital; earnings; schooling; education; early legal access;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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