The effect of education on second births in Hungary

Tamás Bartus, Lívia Murinkó, Bernadett Szél and Ivett Szalma
Additional contact information
Tamás Bartus: Corvinus University of Budapest
Lívia Murinkó: Népességtudományi Kutatóintézet (Hungarian Demographic Research Institute)
Bernadett Szél: Corvinus University of Budapest
Ivett Szalma: Corvinus University of Budapest

Demographic Research, 2013, vol. 28, issue 1, 1-32

Abstract: Background: In recent years, several studies have reported a positive effect of women’s education on the transition to second births. This finding contradicts the economic theory of fertility. Three explanations were proposed: the selection, the time-squeeze, and the partner effect hypotheses. Objective: We propose a modification of the economic theory to account for the positive educational gradient with regard to second births. We empirically examine the effect of women’s education on the timing of second births. Methods: We use a sample of women born between 1946 and 1983 from all three waves of the Hungarian Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) data. We estimate lognormal survival models of the timing of second births. Results: We find that female education reduces the waiting time to second conception in Hungary. The results remain robust after controlling for sample selection and cannot be explained away in terms of time-squeeze and the partner’s education. Conclusions: We conclude that the relationship between women’s education and spacing behavior might be a causal one.

Keywords: fertility; education; Hungary; second births; partner effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol28/1/28-1.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dem:demres:v:28:y:2013:i:1

DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2013.28.1

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Demographic Research from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Editorial Office ().