IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/13847.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Education and Labor Market Consequences of Teenage Childbearing: Evidence Using the Timing of Pregnancy Outcomes and Community Fixed Effects

Author

Listed:
  • Jason M. Fletcher
  • Barbara L. Wolfe

Abstract

The question of whether giving birth as a teenager has negative economic consequences for the mother remains controversial despite substantial research. In this paper, we build upon existing literature, especially the literature that uses the experience of teenagers who had a miscarriage as the appropriate comparison group. We show that miscarriages are not random events, but rather are likely correlated with (unobserved) community-level factors, casting some doubt on previous findings. Including community-level fixed effects in our specifications lead to important changes in our estimates. By making use of information on the timing of miscarriages as well as birth control choices preceding the teenage pregnancies we construct more relevant control groups for teenage mothers. We find evidence that teenage childbearing likely reduces the probability of receiving a high school diploma by 5 to 10 percentage points, reduces annual income as a young adult by $1,000 to $2,400, and may increase the probability of receiving cash assistance and decrease years of schooling.

Suggested Citation

  • Jason M. Fletcher & Barbara L. Wolfe, 2008. "Education and Labor Market Consequences of Teenage Childbearing: Evidence Using the Timing of Pregnancy Outcomes and Community Fixed Effects," NBER Working Papers 13847, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13847
    Note: CH EH
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w13847.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ribar, David C, 1994. "Teenage Fertility and High School Completion," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(3), pages 413-424, August.
    2. Barbara Wolfe & Robert Haveman & Karen Pence & Jonathan Schwabish, 2007. "Do youth nonmarital childbearing choices reflect income and relationship expectations?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 20(1), pages 73-100, February.
    3. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1995. "Sisters, Siblings, and Mothers: The Effect of Teen-Age Childbearing on Birth Outcomes in a Dynamic Family Context," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(2), pages 303-326, March.
    4. V. Joseph Hotz & Susan Williams McElroy & Seth G. Sanders, 2005. "Teenage Childbearing and Its Life Cycle Consequences: Exploiting a Natural Experiment," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(3).
    5. David C. Ribar, 1999. "The socioeconomic consequences of young women's childbearing: Reconciling disparate evidence," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 12(4), pages 547-565.
    6. Wolfe, Barbara & Wilson, Kathryn & Haveman, Robert, 2001. "The role of economic incentives in teenage nonmarital childbearing choices," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 473-511, September.
    7. An, Chong-Bum & Haveman, Robert & Wolfe, Barbara, 1993. "Teen Out-of-Wedlock Births and Welfare Receipt: The Role of Childhood Events and Economic Circumstances," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(2), pages 195-208, May.
    8. 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.
    9. Saul D. Hoffman, 2003. "The Socio-Economic Effects of Teen Childbearing Re-Considered: A Re-Analysis of the Teen Miscarriage Experiment," Working Papers 03-08, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    10. Adam Ashcraft & Kevin Lang, 2006. "The Consequences of Teenage Childbearing," NBER Working Papers 12485, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Arline T. Geronimus & Sanders Korenman, 1992. "The Socioeconomic Consequences of Teen Childbearing Reconsidered," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(4), pages 1187-1214.
    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. Jason Fletcher, 2012. "The effects of teenage childbearing on the short- and long-term health behaviors of mothers," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(1), pages 201-218, January.
    2. Helena Holmlund, 2005. "Estimating Long-Term Consequences of Teenage Childbearing: An Examination of the Siblings Approach," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(3).
    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. Christina J. Diaz & Jeremy E. Fiel, 2016. "The Effect(s) of Teen Pregnancy: Reconciling Theory, Methods, and Findings," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(1), pages 85-116, February.
    5. Kevin Stange, 2011. "A Longitudinal Analysis of the Relationship Between Fertility Timing and Schooling," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(3), pages 931-956, August.
    6. Jennifer Kane & S. Morgan & Kathleen Harris & David Guilkey, 2013. "The Educational Consequences of Teen Childbearing," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(6), pages 2129-2150, December.
    7. Joseph J. Sabia & Joseph P. Price & H. Elizabeth Peters & Reginald Covington, 2018. "The effect on teenage childbearing on social capital development: new evidence on civic engagement," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 629-659, September.
    8. Berthelon, Matias & Kruger, Diana, 2014. "The Impact of Adolescent Motherhood on Education in Chile," IZA Discussion Papers 8072, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Christopher A. Jepsen & Lisa K. Jepsen, 2006. "The Effects Of Statutory Rape Laws On Nonmarital Teenage Childbearing," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 24(1), pages 35-51, January.
    10. B. Piedad Urdinola & Carlos Ospino, 2015. "Long-term consequences of adolescent fertility: The Colombian case," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(55), pages 1487-1518.
    11. Rafael Novella & Laura Ripani, 2016. "Are you (not) expecting? The unforeseen benefits of job training on teenage pregnancy," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-18, December.
    12. Gunes, Pinar Mine & Tsaneva, Magda, 2020. "The effects of teenage childbearing on education, physical health, and mental distress: evidence from Mexico," Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 86(2), pages 183-206, June.
    13. Mary A. Silles, 2019. "The Labor Market Consequences Of Teenage Childbearing," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(4), pages 694-713, October.
    14. Webbink, Dinand & Martin, Nicholas G. & Visscher, Peter M., 2008. "Does teenage childbearing increase smoking, drinking and body size?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 888-903, July.
    15. Rosenbaum, Philip, 2020. "Does early childbearing matter? New approach using Danish register data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    16. Pınar Mine Güneş, 2016. "The effects of teenage childbearing on long-term health in the US: a twin-fixed-effects approach," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 891-920, December.
    17. Herrera Catalina & E. Sahn David, 2017. "Working Paper 281 - Early Childbearing, School Attainment and Cognitive Skills," Working Paper Series 2398, African Development Bank.
    18. Hill, Laura E. & Jepsen, Christopher, 2007. "Positive outcomes from poor starts: Predictors of dropping back in," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 588-603, October.
    19. Dinand Webbink & Nicholas Martin & Peter Visscher, 2011. "Does teenage childbearing reduce investment in human capital?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 701-730, April.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    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:nbr:nberwo:13847. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.