Arbeitspapier

The trade-off between fertility and education : evidence from before the demographic transition

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.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 2775

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Education and Research Institutions: General
Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Europe: Pre-1913
Thema
schooling
fertility transition
unified growth theory
19th-century Prussia
Fruchtbarkeit
Bildungsverhalten
Allgemeinbildende Schule
Bildungsinvestition
Wachstumstheorie
Demographischer Übergang
Preußen

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Becker, Sascha O.
Cinnirella, Francesco
Woessmann, Ludger
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
(wo)
Munich
(wann)
2009

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
20.09.2024, 08:21 MESZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Becker, Sascha O.
  • Cinnirella, Francesco
  • Woessmann, Ludger
  • Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)

Entstanden

  • 2009

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