Children having children: early motherhood and offspring human capital in India

M. Perez-Alvarez () and Marta Favara
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M. Perez-Alvarez: University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiteitscomplex

Journal of Population Economics, 2023, vol. 36, issue 3, No 15, 1573-1606

Abstract: Abstract Using panel data from India, this paper investigates the effect of early maternal age on offspring human capital, contributing to the scarce evidence on this phenomenon, especially in the context of a developing country. The analysis relies on mother fixed effects to allow for unobserved differences between mothers and employs a variety of empirical strategies to address remaining sibling-specific concerns. Our results indicate that children born to young mothers are shorter for their age, with stronger effects for girls born to very young mothers. We also find some evidence suggesting that children born to very young mothers perform worse in math. By exploring the evolution of effects over time for the first time in the literature, we find that the height effect weakens as children age. Further analysis suggests both biological and behavioral factors as transmission channels.

Keywords: Early motherhood; Fertility; Health; Cognition; Human capital; Gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 I25 J13 J16 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1007/s00148-023-00946-0

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