More schooling, more children: Compulsory schooling reforms and fertility in Europe

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Reihe Ökonomie / Economics Series ; No. 281

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
• Subject: instrumental variables ; education ; fertility

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Fort, Margherita ; Schneeweis, Nicole ; Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS)
• (where): Vienna
• (when): 2011

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/68503
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET