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

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 2775

Classification and Topics

• Classification: 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
• Subject: schooling ; fertility transition ; unified growth theory ; 19th-century Prussia ; Fruchtbarkeit ; Bildungsverhalten ; Allgemeinbildende Schule ; Bildungsinvestition ; Wachstumstheorie ; Demographischer Übergang ; Preußen

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Becker, Sascha O. ; Cinnirella, Francesco ; Woessmann, Ludger
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/30492
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET