Working Paper: NBER ID: w13070
Authors: Una Okonkwo Osili; Bridget Terry Long
Abstract: The literature generally points to a negative relationship between female education and fertility. Citing this pattern, policymakers have advocated educating girls and young women as a means to reduce population growth and foster sustained economic and social welfare in developing countries. This paper tests whether the relationship between fertility and education is indeed causal by investigating the introduction of universal primary education in Nigeria. Exploiting differences by region and age, the paper uses differences-in-differences and instrumental variables to estimate the role of education in fertility. The analysis suggests that increasing education by one year reduces fertility by 0.26 births.
Keywords: female education; fertility; Nigeria; universal primary education
JEL Codes: I20; J13; O10
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| female educational attainment (I24) | fertility rates (J13) |
| UPE program (I28) | female educational attainment (I24) |
| UPE program (I28) | fertility rates (J13) |