The effect of education on teenage fertility: causal evidence for Argentina

María Laura Alzúa and Cecilia Velázquez

IZA Journal of Migration and Development, 2017, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-23

Abstract: Abstract This is the first study exploring the causal effect of education on teenage fertility in Argentina. We exploit an exogenous variation in education from the staggered implementation of the 1993 reform, which increased compulsory schooling from 7 to 10 years. We find a negative overall impact of education on teenage fertility rates, which operates through two complementing channels: a human capital effect (one additional year of schooling causes a decline of 30 births per 1000 girls) and a weaker ‘incapacitation’ effect (a rise of one percentage point in enrollment rate reduces 3 births per 1000 girls).

Keywords: Teenage fertility; Education; Instrumental variables; Compulsory schooling laws; Latin America and the Caribbean; Argentina (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I25 I28 J13 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1186/s40176-017-0100-8

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