The long-run labour market consequences of teenage motherhood in Britain

Arnaud Chevalier and Tarja Viitanen

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

Abstract: Common wisdom states that teenage childbearing reduces schooling, labour market experience and adult wages. However, the decisions to be a teenage mother, to quit school, and be less attached to the labour market might all stem from some personal or family characteristics. Using the National Child Development Study (NCDS), we find that in Britain teenage childbearing decreases the probability of post-16 schooling by 12% to 24%. Employment experience is reduced by up to three years, and the adult pay differential ranges from 5% to 22%. The negative impact of teen motherhood on various adult outcomes is not due to some pre-motherhood characteristics; hence policies aiming to encourage return to school and participation in the labour market may be an efficient way to reduce the long-term consequences of teenage pregnancy.

Keywords: Teenage pregnancy; schooling decisions; wages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 J13 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2002-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/20093/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The long-run labour market consequences of teenage motherhood in Britain (2003)
Working Paper: The Long-Run Labour Market Consequences of Teenage Motherhood in Britain (2002)
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:ehl:lserod:20093

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().