Gender Norms and the Quantity–Quality Tradeoff

Why does the quantity-quality tradeoff operate in some societies but not others? We study this question using the staggered introduction of free primary education (FPE) in sub-Saharan Africa, which lowered the cost of investing in children’s human capital. Exploiting within-ethnicity variation, we find that FPE reduces fertility and improves child survival and school enrollment, but only among ethnic groups with gender-egalitarian norms. We provide evidence that FPE strengthens women’s empowerment, predominantly among those gender-egalitarian groups. A simple conceptual framework shows that lower schooling costs create incentives to reduce fertility, while prevailing gender norms determine whether households act on those incentives.