Education, Teenage Fertility and Labour Market Participation, Evidence from Ecuador

24 Pages Posted: 27 Jan 2012

See all articles by Anna S. De Paoli

Anna S. De Paoli

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Department of Economics, Management and Statistics (DEMS)

Date Written: September 26, 2011

Abstract

Using a representative sample of Ecuadorian young women’s households, this paper focuses on the role played by education in shaping fertility choices and labor market participation. Education, which is found to be endogenous with respect to teenage childbearing, is instrumented by a reform that took place in 1977. Then, in a model where the choices to be a mother and to be in the labor force are considered simultaneously, we find evidence that schooling is positively related to women’s labor market participation rate and negatively to early motherhood. The last section concludes stressing the potential intergenerational effects of changes in the age at first birth, showing that firstborn children born to older mothers have better educational outcomes than those born to younger ones. We find that educational policies improve women’s conditions, lowering the risk of teenage childbearing and increasing labor market attachment.

Keywords: schooling, education policy, teenage fertility, labor force

JEL Classification: I21, I28, J13, J20

Suggested Citation

De Paoli, Anna S., Education, Teenage Fertility and Labour Market Participation, Evidence from Ecuador (September 26, 2011). Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano Development Studies Working Paper No. 319, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1992549 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1992549

Anna S. De Paoli (Contact Author)

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Department of Economics, Management and Statistics (DEMS) ( email )

Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1
Milan, 20126
Italy

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