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The Impact of Schooling on the Timing of Marriage and Fertility: Evidence from a Change in Compulsory Schooling Law

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  • Murat G. Kırdar

    (Middle East Technical University)

Abstract

This paper estimates the impact of schooling on the timing of marriage and early fertility using the 2003 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey and duration analysis methodology. The source of exogenous variation in schooling is the extension of compulsory schooling in Turkey in 1997. The findings indicate that at age 17 –three years after the completion of compulsory schooling –, the proportion of women who are married drops from 15.2 to 10 percent and the proportion of women who have given birth falls from 6.2 to 3.5 percent as a result of the new policy. This implies that the impact of increased schooling on marriage and early fertility persists beyond the completion of compulsory schooling for an important duration. In addition, the delay in the timing of first-birth is driven from the delay in the timing of marriage. After a woman is married, schooling does not have an effect on the duration until her first-birth.

Suggested Citation

  • Murat G. Kırdar, 2009. "The Impact of Schooling on the Timing of Marriage and Fertility: Evidence from a Change in Compulsory Schooling Law," 2009 Meeting Papers 809, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    • Handle: RePEc:red:sed009:809
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Francesca Marchetta & David E. Sahn, 2016. "The Role of Education and Family Background in Marriage, Childbearing, and Labor Market Participation in Senegal," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(2), pages 369-403.
    3. Nadir Altinok & Abdurrahman Aydemir, 2015. "The Unfolding of Gender Gap in Education," Working Papers halshs-01204805, HAL.
    4. Rachel Heath & Seema Jayachandran, 2016. "The Causes and Consequences of Increased Female Education and Labor Force Participation in Developing Countries," Working Papers id:11434, eSocialSciences.
    5. Hamad, Rita & Elser, Holly & Tran, Duy C. & Rehkopf, David H. & Goodman, Steven N., 2018. "How and why studies disagree about the effects of education on health: A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies of compulsory schooling laws," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 168-178.
    6. Monica J. Grant, 2015. "The Demographic Promise of Expanded Female Education: Trends in the Age at First Birth in Malawi," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 41(3), pages 409-438, September.
    7. Powdthavee, Nattavudh & Adireksombat, Kampon, 2010. "From Classroom to Wedding Aisle: The Effect of a Nationwide Change in the Compulsory Schooling Law on Age at First Marriage in the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 5019, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Lavy, Victor & Zablotsky, Alexander, 2015. "Women's schooling and fertility under low female labor force participation: Evidence from mobility restrictions in Israel," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 105-121.
    9. Hardiani, Hardiani & Junaidi, Junaidi, 2018. "Determinants of early marriage and model of maturing marriage age policy: a case in Jambi Province, Indonesia," MPRA Paper 86453, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Karimi, Seyed M. & Taghvatalab, Golnaz, 2020. "Access to higher education and the likelihood of being married," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 22-33.

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