Gender empowerment as an enforcer of individuals’ choice between education and fertility: Evidence from 19th century France

Claude Diebolt, Tapas Mishra and Faustine Perrin

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2021, vol. 188, issue C, 408-438

Abstract: Recent theoretical developments in growth models, triggered particularly by unified theories of growth, suggest that the child quantity-quality trade-off is a defining element in our explanation of a transition from Malthusian stagnation to a sustained growth path. This paper presents a model and derives a testable empirical framework to investigate the role of gender in the trade-off between education and fertility for 86 French counties during the 19th century. Endogeneity-mitigated mean- and median-based regressions offer robust empirical predictions for gender-empowered quantity-quality trade-off. In particular, we find the existence of a significant and negative association between education and fertility. Further, while gauging the differential effects of schooling on fertility, we find that the short-run differences between male and female are small whilst the long-run effects are large. From policy perspective, our results imply that for stable long-run growth it matters not just that parents educate their children, but specifically that they choose to educate girls.

Keywords: Model of individuals’ choice; Gender difference; Education; Fertility; Unified growth theory; Nineteenth century France; Quantity-quality trade-off; Cliometrics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C22 C26 C32 C36 C81 C82 I20 J13 N01 N33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:188:y:2021:i:c:p:408-438

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2021.05.011

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