IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/hepoli/v159y2025ics0168851025001228.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Education and fertility: Evidence from an instrumental variable approach using higher education expansions in Turkey

Author

Listed:
  • Baltagi, Badi H.
  • Karatas, Haci M.

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of higher education on women’s fertility behavior in Turkey. To address the endogeneity of education we use the plausibly exogenous variation in college availability in Turkey between 1983 and 2000. We find that increased education of women in Turkey significantly reduced the number of children and increased the probability of childlessness at the end of the fecund period. The effect of education on fertility worked through a postponement in first births at ages following college graduation until the age of 35, an improvement in women’s labor market outcomes, better marriage market outcomes, and use of modern contraceptive methods. These findings suggest that education reduces fertility at the intensive and extensive margin through a combined incarceration and human capital effect and health knowledge in Turkey.

Suggested Citation

  • Baltagi, Badi H. & Karatas, Haci M., 2025. "Education and fertility: Evidence from an instrumental variable approach using higher education expansions in Turkey," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:159:y:2025:i:c:s0168851025001228
    DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2025.105366
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851025001228
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.healthpol.2025.105366?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:159:y:2025:i:c:s0168851025001228. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.