The trade-off between fertility and education: Evidence from before the demographic transition

Sascha Becker, Francesco Cinnirella and Ludger Wößmann
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ludger Woessmann

Munich Reprints in Economics from University of Munich, Department of Economics

Abstract: The trade-off between child quantity and quality is a crucial ingredient of unified growth models that explain the transition from Malthusian stagnation to modern growth. We present first evidence that such a trade-off indeed existed already in the nineteenth century, exploiting a unique census-based dataset of 334 Prussian counties in 1849. Furthermore, we find that causation between fertility and education runs both ways, based on separate instrumental-variable models that instrument fertility by sex ratios and education by landownership inequality and distance toWittenberg. Education in 1849 also predicts the fertility transition in 1880-1905.

Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (236)

Published in Journal of Economic Growth 3 15(2010): pp. 177-204

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Related works:
Journal Article: The trade-off between fertility and education: evidence from before the demographic transition (2010)
Working Paper: The Trade-off between Fertility and Education: Evidence from before the Demographic Transition (2009)
Working Paper: The Trade-off between Fertility and Education: Evidence from before the Demographic Transition (2009)
Working Paper: The Trade-off between Fertility and Education: Evidence from before the Demographic Transition (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lmu:muenar:20196

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