IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gdm/wpaper/12816.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of Schooling on Teenage Fertility: Evidence from the 1994 Education Reform in Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Elina Pradhan

    (Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health)

  • David Canning

    (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Department of Global Health and Population)

Abstract

We investigate the effect of female schooling on teenage fertility using an education reform in Ethiopia in 1994 as a natural experiment that led to a jump in female school enrollment and about 0.74 years of additional schooling for the first two exposed cohorts. Using a regression discontinuity approach we find that each additional year of schooling lowers the probability of both teenage marriage and teenage childbearing by about six percentage points. This casual estimate is consistent with the steep gradient of teenage marriage and fertility with education observed in the data. JEL Codes:

Suggested Citation

  • Elina Pradhan & David Canning, 2016. "The Effect of Schooling on Teenage Fertility: Evidence from the 1994 Education Reform in Ethiopia," PGDA Working Papers 12816, Program on the Global Demography of Aging.
    • Handle: RePEc:gdm:wpaper:12816
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cdn1.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1288/2012/11/PGDA_WP_128_Pradhan_Canning.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Chicoine, Luke, 2012. "Education and Fertility: Evidence from a Policy Change in Kenya," IZA Discussion Papers 6778, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Arnaud Chevalier & Tarja K. Viitanen & Tarja K. Viitanen, 2003. "The long-run labour market consequences of teenage motherhood in Britain," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 16(2), pages 323-343, May.
    4. Portner, Claus C & Beegle, Kathleen & Christiaensen, Luc, 2011. "Family planning and fertility : estimating program effects using cross-sectional data," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5812, The World Bank.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    6. Daniel Klepinger & Shelly Lundberg & Robert Plotnick, 1999. "How Does Adolescent Fertility Affect the Human Capital and Wages of Young Women?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(3), pages 421-448.
    7. Lucia Breierova & Esther Duflo, 2003. "The Impact of Education on Fertility and Child Mortality: Do Fathers Really Matter Less Than Mothers?," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 217, OECD Publishing.
    8. Amalia Miller, 2011. "The effects of motherhood timing on career path," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(3), pages 1071-1100, July.
    9. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Schultz, T Paul, 1989. "Schooling, Information and Nonmarket Productivity: Contraceptive Use and Its Effectiveness," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 30(2), pages 457-477, May.
    10. Michael P. Murray, 2006. "Avoiding Invalid Instruments and Coping with Weak Instruments," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(4), pages 111-132, Fall.
    11. Kate McQueston & Rachel Silverman & Amanda Glassman, 2012. "Adolescent Fertility in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Effects and Solutions," Working Papers id:4975, eSocialSciences.
    12. Vimal Ranchhod & David Lam & Murray Leibbrandt & Leticia Marteleto, 2011. "Estimating the effect of adolescent fertility on educational attainment in Cape Town using a propensity score weighted regression," SALDRU Working Papers 59, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Murat G. Kırdar & Meltem Dayıoğlu & İsmet Koç, 2018. "The Effects of Compulsory-Schooling Laws on Teenage Marriage and Births in Turkey," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(4), pages 640-668.
    2. Frederik Wild & David Stadelmann, 2024. "Heterogeneous Effects of Women's Schooling on Fertility, Literacy and Work: Evidence from Burundi's Free Primary Education Policy," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 33(1), pages 67-91.
    3. Wild, Frederik & Stadelmann, David, 2020. "Heterogeneous Effects of Women's Schooling on Fertility, Literacy and Work: Evidence from Burundi's Free Primary Education Policy," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224607, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    4. Herrera Catalina & E. Sahn David, 2017. "Working Paper 281 - Early Childbearing, School Attainment and Cognitive Skills," Working Paper Series 2398, African Development Bank.
    5. 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.
    6. Miron Tequame & Nyasha Tirivayi, 2015. "Higher education and fertility: Evidence from a natural experiment in Ethiopia," CINCH Working Paper Series 1509, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen, Competent in Competition and Health, revised Aug 2015.
    7. Marine de Talancé, 2019. "Education, fertility and childlessness in Indonesia [Education, fécondité en Indonésie]," Working Papers hal-02310876, HAL.
    8. David SAHN & Catalina HERRERA, 2014. "The Impact of Early Childbearing on Schooling and Cognitive Skills among Young Women in Madagascar," Working Papers 201428, CERDI.
    9. Garcez, Lucas N. & Padilla-Romo, María & Peluffo, Cecilia & Pineda-Torres, Mayra, 2024. "Improvements in Schooling Opportunities and Teen Births," IZA Discussion Papers 16791, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Dinçer, Mehmet Alper & Kaushal, Neeraj & Grossman, Michael, 2014. "Women’s Education: Harbinger of Another Spring? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Turkey," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 243-258.
    11. Chen, Jiwei & Guo, Jiangying, 2022. "The effect of female education on fertility: Evidence from China’s compulsory schooling reform," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    12. Catalina Herrera Almanza & David E. Sahn, 2018. "Early Childbearing, School Attainment, and Cognitive Skills: Evidence From Madagascar," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(2), pages 643-668, April.
    13. Bloom, D.E. & Luca, D.L., 2016. "The Global Demography of Aging," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 3-56, Elsevier.
    14. Güneş Pınar Mine, 2016. "The Impact of Female Education on Teenage Fertility: Evidence from Turkey," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 259-288, January.
    15. Fatma Romeh M. Ali & Shiferaw Gurmu, 2018. "The impact of female education on fertility: a natural experiment from Egypt," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 681-712, September.
    16. Jungho Kim, 2023. "Female education and its impact on fertility," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 228-228, May.
    17. Kakal, T., 2015. "A tale of two sisters : Investigating the socio-economic outcomes of teen childbearing in South Africa," ISS Working Papers - General Series 604, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    18. Özer, Mustafa & Fidrmuc, Jan, 2017. "Male Education and Domestic Violence in Turkey: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," GLO Discussion Paper Series 109, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    19. DeCicca, Philip & Krashinsky, Harry, 2020. "Does education reduce teen fertility? Evidence from compulsory schooling laws," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    20. Kazuya Masuda & Chikako Yamauchi, 2017. "The Effects of Female Education on Adolescent Pregnancy and Child Health: Evidence from Uganda fs Universal Primary Education for Fully Treated Cohorts," GRIPS Discussion Papers 17-01, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ethiopia; Education Policy; Fertility; Female Education; Age at Marriage; Regression Discontinuity.;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:gdm:wpaper:12816. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Cinzia Smothers (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/degraus.html .

    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.