From high school to the high chair: Education and fertility timing

Jonathan James; Sunčica Vujić

doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.12.002

From high school to the high chair: Education and fertility timing

Jonathan James, Sunčica Vujić^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

We exploit an expansion of post-compulsory schooling that occurred from the late 1980s to the early 1990s to investigate the effect of education on the timing of fertility in England and Wales. We do not find a significant effect on the probability of having a child as a teenager but instead find that the variation in education led to delays in childbearing. Our estimates suggest that an increase in education by one year led to a 5.3% increase in probability of first birth aged 24 or above, 9.4% increase in probability of first birth aged 27 or above, and 13.3% increase in probability of first birth aged 30 or above. The mechanisms driving these findings are not due to an incapacitation effect – by keeping young people in school or university they have less time or opportunity to have a child – but due to a combination of human capital and signalling effects.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-24
Number of pages	24
Journal	Economics of Education Review
Volume	69
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.12.002
Publication status	Published - Apr 2019
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Dan Anderberg, Emilia Del Bono, Anna Vignoles, Marco Francesconi, Kjell Salvanes, Dan-Olof Rooth, Philip Verwimp, Francois Rycx, Bart Golsteyn, Didier Fouarge and Inge Hooijen for useful comments and suggestions. We would also like to thank the participants at the Economic and Research Council (ESRC) Multi-disciplinary Workshop on Education at the Institute for Social Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, the Leuven Economics of Education Research (LEER) Workshop on Education Economics at the Catholic University of Leuven, the Belgian Day for Labour Economists (BDLE) at the Catholic University of Leuven, the Wim Meeusen Workshop at the Staffordshire University, the Royal Economics Society (RES) conference at the University of Sussex, the TIER Workshop on Education Economics at the University of Maastricht, the European Society for Population Economics (ESPE) conference in Berlin, the International Workshop on Applied Economics of Education (IWAEE) in Catanzaro, the European Association of Labour Economists (EALE) conference at the University of Ghent, as well as the seminar participants at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), the University of Antwerp, the University of Bath, the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at the Stockholm University, the University of Maastricht and the Institute of Economics Sciences in Belgrade. Jonathan James acknowledges financial support from the British Academy, grant No. SG120143.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018

Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Funding

We thank Dan Anderberg, Emilia Del Bono, Anna Vignoles, Marco Francesconi, Kjell Salvanes, Dan-Olof Rooth, Philip Verwimp, Francois Rycx, Bart Golsteyn, Didier Fouarge and Inge Hooijen for useful comments and suggestions. We would also like to thank the participants at the Economic and Research Council (ESRC) Multi-disciplinary Workshop on Education at the Institute for Social Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, the Leuven Economics of Education Research (LEER) Workshop on Education Economics at the Catholic University of Leuven, the Belgian Day for Labour Economists (BDLE) at the Catholic University of Leuven, the Wim Meeusen Workshop at the Staffordshire University, the Royal Economics Society (RES) conference at the University of Sussex, the TIER Workshop on Education Economics at the University of Maastricht, the European Society for Population Economics (ESPE) conference in Berlin, the International Workshop on Applied Economics of Education (IWAEE) in Catanzaro, the European Association of Labour Economists (EALE) conference at the University of Ghent, as well as the seminar participants at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), the University of Antwerp, the University of Bath, the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at the Stockholm University, the University of Maastricht and the Institute of Economics Sciences in Belgrade. Jonathan James acknowledges financial support from the British Academy, grant No. SG120143.

Keywords

Education
Fertility timing

Access to Document

10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.12.002

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Cite this

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title = "From high school to the high chair: Education and fertility timing",

abstract = "We exploit an expansion of post-compulsory schooling that occurred from the late 1980s to the early 1990s to investigate the effect of education on the timing of fertility in England and Wales. We do not find a significant effect on the probability of having a child as a teenager but instead find that the variation in education led to delays in childbearing. Our estimates suggest that an increase in education by one year led to a 5.3\% increase in probability of first birth aged 24 or above, 9.4\% increase in probability of first birth aged 27 or above, and 13.3\% increase in probability of first birth aged 30 or above. The mechanisms driving these findings are not due to an incapacitation effect – by keeping young people in school or university they have less time or opportunity to have a child – but due to a combination of human capital and signalling effects.",

keywords = "Education, Fertility timing",

author = "Jonathan James and Sun{\v c}ica Vuji{\'c}",

note = "Funding Information: We thank Dan Anderberg, Emilia Del Bono, Anna Vignoles, Marco Francesconi, Kjell Salvanes, Dan-Olof Rooth, Philip Verwimp, Francois Rycx, Bart Golsteyn, Didier Fouarge and Inge Hooijen for useful comments and suggestions. We would also like to thank the participants at the Economic and Research Council (ESRC) Multi-disciplinary Workshop on Education at the Institute for Social Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, the Leuven Economics of Education Research (LEER) Workshop on Education Economics at the Catholic University of Leuven, the Belgian Day for Labour Economists (BDLE) at the Catholic University of Leuven, the Wim Meeusen Workshop at the Staffordshire University, the Royal Economics Society (RES) conference at the University of Sussex, the TIER Workshop on Education Economics at the University of Maastricht, the European Society for Population Economics (ESPE) conference in Berlin, the International Workshop on Applied Economics of Education (IWAEE) in Catanzaro, the European Association of Labour Economists (EALE) conference at the University of Ghent, as well as the seminar participants at the Universit{\'e} libre de Bruxelles (ULB), the University of Antwerp, the University of Bath, the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at the Stockholm University, the University of Maastricht and the Institute of Economics Sciences in Belgrade. Jonathan James acknowledges financial support from the British Academy, grant No. SG120143. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 Copyright: Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",

year = "2019",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.12.002",

language = "English",

volume = "69",

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AU - Vujić, Sunčica

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N2 - We exploit an expansion of post-compulsory schooling that occurred from the late 1980s to the early 1990s to investigate the effect of education on the timing of fertility in England and Wales. We do not find a significant effect on the probability of having a child as a teenager but instead find that the variation in education led to delays in childbearing. Our estimates suggest that an increase in education by one year led to a 5.3% increase in probability of first birth aged 24 or above, 9.4% increase in probability of first birth aged 27 or above, and 13.3% increase in probability of first birth aged 30 or above. The mechanisms driving these findings are not due to an incapacitation effect – by keeping young people in school or university they have less time or opportunity to have a child – but due to a combination of human capital and signalling effects.

AB - We exploit an expansion of post-compulsory schooling that occurred from the late 1980s to the early 1990s to investigate the effect of education on the timing of fertility in England and Wales. We do not find a significant effect on the probability of having a child as a teenager but instead find that the variation in education led to delays in childbearing. Our estimates suggest that an increase in education by one year led to a 5.3% increase in probability of first birth aged 24 or above, 9.4% increase in probability of first birth aged 27 or above, and 13.3% increase in probability of first birth aged 30 or above. The mechanisms driving these findings are not due to an incapacitation effect – by keeping young people in school or university they have less time or opportunity to have a child – but due to a combination of human capital and signalling effects.

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JF - Economics of Education Review

ER -

From high school to the high chair: Education and fertility timing

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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