Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP8609
Authors: Margherita Fort; Nicole Schneeweis; Rudolf Winterebmer
Abstract: We study the relationship between education and fertility, exploiting compulsory schooling reforms in Europe as source of exogenous variation in education. Using data from 8 European countries, we assess the causal effect of education on the number of biological kids and the incidence of childlessness. We find that more education causes a substantial decrease in childlessness and an increase in the average number of children per woman. Our findings are robust to a number of falsification checks and we can provide complementary empirical evidence on the mechanisms leading to these surprising results.
Keywords: education; fertility; instrumental variables
JEL Codes: I2; J13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Education (I29) | Childlessness (J12) |
| Education (I29) | Number of Biological Children (J13) |
| Education (I29) | Marriage Probabilities (J12) |
| Marriage Stability (J12) | Fertility Outcomes (J13) |
| Education (I29) | Partner Educational Attainment (I24) |
| Partner Educational Attainment (I24) | Fertility Outcomes (J13) |