Education, gender and family formation

Hanna Virtanen, Mikko Silliman, Tiina Kuuppelomäki and Kristiina Huttunen

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We study the effect of educational attainment on family formation using regression discontinuity designs generated by centralized admissions processes to both secondary and tertiary education in Finland. Admission to further education at either margin does not increase the likelihood that men form families. In contrast, women admitted to further education are more likely to both live with a partner and have children. We then pre-register and test two hypotheses which could explain each set of results using survey data. These suggest that the positive association between men's education and family formation observed in the data is driven by selection. For women, our estimates are consistent with the idea that, as increased returns to social skills shift the burden of child development from schools to parents and particularly mothers, education can make women more attractive as potential partners.

Keywords: family; education; gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 73 pages
Date: 2024-06-19
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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/126841/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Education, gender and family formation (2024)
Working Paper: Education, Gender, and Family Formation (2024)
Working Paper: Education, Gender, and Family Formation (2024)
Working Paper: Education, Gender, and Family Formation (2024)
Working Paper: Education, Gender, and Family Formation (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:126841

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