How Does Adolescent Fertility Affect the Human Capital and Wages of Young Women?

Daniel Klepinger, Shelly Lundberg and Robert Plotnick

Journal of Human Resources, 1999, vol. 34, issue 3, 421-448

Abstract: We estimate the relationship between teenage childbearing, human capital investment, and wages in early adulthood, using a sample of women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and a large set of potential instruments for fertility-principally state and county-level indicators of the costs of fertility and fertility control. Adolescent fertility substantially reduces years of formal education and teenage work experience and, for white women only, early adult work experience. Through reductions in human capital, teenage childbearing has a significant effect on market wages at age 25. Our results suggest that public policies which reduce teenage childbearing are likely to have positive effects on the economic well-being of many young mothers.

Date: 1999
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:34:y:1999:i:3:p:421-448

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