The Trade-off between Fertility and Education: Evidence from before the Demographic Transition

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

No 2009-17, Stirling Economics Discussion Papers from University of Stirling, Division of Economics

Abstract: The trade-off between child quantity and education 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 before the demographic transition, exploiting a unique census-based dataset of 334 Prussian counties in 1849. Estimating two separate instrumental-variable models that instrument education by landownership inequality and distance to Wittenberg and fertility by previous-generation fertility and sex-imbalance ratio, we find that causation between fertility and education runs both ways. Furthermore, education in 1849 predicts the fertility transition in 1880-1905.

Keywords: Schooling; fertility transition; unified growth theory; 19th-century P russia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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http://hdl.handle.net/1893/1598

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 (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)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:stl:stledp:2009-17

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