The effect of investment in children's education on fertility in 1816 Prussia

Arbeitspapier

The interaction between investment in children's education and parental fertility is crucial in recent theories of the transition from Malthusian stagnation to modern economic growth. This paper contributes to the literature on the child quantity-quality trade-off with new county-level evidence for Prussia in 1816, several decades before the demographic transition. We find a significant negative causal effect of education on fertility, which is robust to accounting for spatial autocorrelation. The causal effect of education is identified through exogenous variation in enrollment rates due to differences in landownership inequality. A comparison with estimates for 1849 suggests that the preference for quality relative to quantity might have increased during the first half of the nineteenth century.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 3252

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Europe: Pre-1913 ; Education and Research Institutions: General ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
• Subject: education ; fertility ; quantity-quality trade-off ; unified growth theory ; 19th century ; Prussia ; Bildungsinvestition ; Kinder ; Fruchtbarkeit ; 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): 2010

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/46482
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET