Working Paper: NBER ID: w12329
Authors: Justin McCrary; Heather Royer
Abstract: This paper uses age-at-school-entry policies to identify the effect of female education on fertility and infant health. We focus on sharp contrasts in schooling, fertility, and infant health between women born just before and after the school entry date. School entry policies affect female education and the quality of a woman's mate and have generally small, but possibly heterogeneous, effects on fertility and infant health. We argue that school entry policies manipulate primarily the education of young women at risk of dropping out of school.
Keywords: female education; fertility; infant health; school entry policies
JEL Codes: C3; D1; I1; J2
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| School entry policies (I28) | Schooling at motherhood (I21) |
| Education (I29) | Probability of motherhood (J16) |
| Education (I29) | Mating market outcomes (P42) |
| Education (I29) | Observable inputs to infant health (I12) |
| Education (I29) | Birth weight (I38) |
| Education (I29) | Infant mortality (J13) |