Fertility effects of college education: Evidence from the German educational expansion

Daniel Kamhofer and Matthias Westphal (matthias.westphal@tu-dortmund.de)

No 316, DICE Discussion Papers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE)

Abstract: Using arguably exogenous variation in college expansions we estimate the effects of college education on female fertility. While college education reduces the probability of becoming a mother, college-educated mothers have more children than mothers without a college education. Lower child-income penalties of college-educated mothers of two relative to mothers without college up to nine years after birth suggest a stronger polarization of college graduate jobs into family-friendly and career-oriented as a potential explanation. We conclude that policies aiming at increasing female educational participation should be counteracted by policies enabling especially college graduates to have both a career and a family.

Keywords: family planning; college education; augmented quantity-quality model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C36 I21 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-eur and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/201868/1/1671787935.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Fertility Effects of College Education: Evidence from the German Educational Expansion (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:dicedp:316

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