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The Impact of Early Childbearing on Schooling and Cognitive Skills among Young Women in Madagascar

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  • Herrera, Catalina

    (Northeastern University)

  • Sahn, David E.

    (Cornell University)

Abstract

Female secondary school attendance has recently increased in Sub-Saharan Africa and so has the risk of becoming pregnant while attending school. Using panel data in Madagascar, we analyze the impact of teenage pregnancy on young women's human capital. We instrument early pregnancy with the young woman's community-level access, and exposure to condoms since age 15. We control for an extensive set of community social and economic infrastructure characteristics to deal with the endogeneity of program placement and conduct several robustness checks to validate our instruments. Early childbearing increases the likelihood of dropping out of school by 42 % and decreases the chances of completing secondary school by 44%. This school-pregnancy related dropout is associated with a reduction of 1.1 standard deviations in Math and French test scores. Delaying the first birth by a year increases the probability of current enrollment by 5% and the test scores by 0.2 standard deviations.

Suggested Citation

  • Herrera, Catalina & Sahn, David E., 2015. "The Impact of Early Childbearing on Schooling and Cognitive Skills among Young Women in Madagascar," IZA Discussion Papers 9362, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9362
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    Cited by:

    1. Vivian Malta & Ms. Lisa L Kolovich & Angelica Martinez & Ms. Marina Mendes Tavares, 2019. "Informality and Gender Gaps Going Hand in Hand," IMF Working Papers 2019/112, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Francesca Marchetta & David Sahn & Luca Tiberti, 2018. "School or work? The role of weather shocks in Madagascar," CERDI Working papers halshs-01774919, HAL.
    3. Favara, Marta & Lavado, Pablo & Sanchez, Alan, 2016. "Understanding Teenage Fertility, Cohabitation, and Marriage: The Case of Peru," IZA Discussion Papers 10270, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Herrera, Catalina & Sahn, David E. & Villa, Kira M., 2016. "Teen Fertility and Labor Market Segmentation: Evidence from Madagascar," IZA Discussion Papers 10464, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Herrera Catalina & E. Sahn David & M. Villa Kira, 2017. "Working Paper 279 - Teen Fertility and Labor Market Segmentation in Madagascar," Working Paper Series 2396, African Development Bank.
    6. Herrera, Catalina & Sahn, David & Villa, Kira, 2016. "Early Fertility and Labor Market Segmentation: Evidence from Madagascar," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235749, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    fertility; female education; cognitive skills; instrumental variables; Madagascar;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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