Fathers' Multiple-Partner Fertility and Children's Educational Outcomes

46 Pages Posted: 9 Sep 2019 Last revised: 16 Mar 2023

See all articles by Donna K. Ginther

Donna K. Ginther

University of Kansas - Department of Economics

Astrid Grasdal

University of Bergen - Department of Economics

Robert A. Pollak

Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: September 2019

Abstract

Fathers' multiple-partner fertility (MPF) is associated with substantially worse educational outcomes for children. We focus on children in fathers’ “second families” when the second families are nuclear families – households consisting of a man, a woman, their joint children, and no other children. We analyze outcomes for almost 75,000 Norwegian children all of whom, at least until they were age 18, lived in nuclear families. Children with MPF fathers are more likely than other children from nuclear families to drop out of secondary school (24% vs 17%) and less likely to obtain bachelor’s degrees (44% vs 51%). These gaps remain substantial after controlling for child and parental characteristics such as income and wealth, education and age: 4 percentage points (ppt) for dropping out of secondary school and 5 ppt for obtaining a bachelor’s degree. Resource competition with the children in the father’s first family does not explain the differences in educational outcomes. We find that the association between a father’s previous childless marriage and his children’s educational outcomes is similar to the association between a father’s MPF and his children’s educational outcomes. This similarity suggests that selection plays the primary role in explaining the association between fathers' MPF and children's educational outcomes.

Suggested Citation

Ginther, Donna K. and Grasdal, Astrid and Pollak, Robert A., Fathers' Multiple-Partner Fertility and Children's Educational Outcomes (September 2019). NBER Working Paper No. w26242, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3450268

Donna K. Ginther (Contact Author)

University of Kansas - Department of Economics ( email )

1300 Sunnyside Drive
Lawrence, KS 66045-7585
United States

Astrid Grasdal

University of Bergen - Department of Economics ( email )

Fosswinckelsgt. 6
N-5007 Bergen, 5007
Norway

Robert A. Pollak

Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School ( email )

One Brookings Drive
Campus Box 1133
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
United States
314-935-4918 (Phone)
314-935-6359 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
9
Abstract Views
260
PlumX Metrics