The Effects of Education on Fertility and Child Mortality: Evidence from the free secondary education policy in the Philippines

Aung Alice Jar Rein and Wong Chun Yee ()
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Wong Chun Yee: IUJ Research Institute, International University of Japan

No EMS_2022_02, Working Papers from Research Institute, International University of Japan

Abstract: The Philippines implemented the free secondary education policy in 1988, which offers a natural experiment to explore the effects of maternal education on fertility and child mortality. Exploiting age-specific exposure to this educational reform through the use of fuzzy regression discontinuity design, this study finds that on average, there is an increase of 0.536 year of schooling in for the cohort of women who had been affected by the policy. Moreover, the results of this study reveal that increasing education by one year reduces 0.829 child born per woman, and decreases child mortality by 1.659%. The empirical evidence supports that increasing opportunities for women to enter and complete secondary education can reduce fertility rates and cause a significant decline in child mortality in developing countries.

Keywords: maternal education; fertility; child mortality; regression discontinuity; the Philippines (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2022-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-hea and nep-sea
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