IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/chb/bcchwp/1001.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of Cognitive Skills on Fertility Timing

Author

Listed:
  • Agustín Díaz Casanueva

Abstract

The paper studies the relationship between cognitive ability, education outcomes, wages, and fertility timing, focusing on how cognitive ability influences fertility decisions. First, the paper presents empirical evidence on the relationship between cognitive ability, early pregnancies, and pregnancy intention using NLSY79 data. Second, I build and estimate a life-cycle model to quantify the importance of cognitive ability, wages, marriage, and edu-cation outcomes on women’s fertility. To explain the data, the model needs heterogeneous contraception costs by ability, as the relation between cognitive ability with education and labor opportunities can not explain the relation of cognitive ability with fertility timing. Next, I use the model to analyze how decreasing contraception costs affect early pregnancies and women’s educational outcomes. Finally, I study the mechanism behind the decline in teen pregnancies during the ’90s.

Suggested Citation

  • Agustín Díaz Casanueva, 2023. "The Effect of Cognitive Skills on Fertility Timing," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 1001, Central Bank of Chile.
    • Handle: RePEc:chb:bcchwp:1001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bcentral.cl/documents/33528/133326/DTBC_1001.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Diego Amador, 2017. "The Consequences of Abortion and Contraception Policies on Young Women’s Reproductive Choices, Schooling and Labor Supply," Documentos CEDE 15635, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    2. V. Joseph Hotz & Susan Williams McElroy & Seth G. Sanders, 2005. "Teenage Childbearing and Its Life Cycle Consequences: Exploiting a Natural Experiment," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(3).
    3. Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1984. "An Estimable Dynamic Stochastic Model of Fertility and Child Mortality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 92(5), pages 852-874, October.
    4. Michael P. Keane & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2010. "The Role Of Labor And Marriage Markets, Preference Heterogeneity, And The Welfare System In The Life Cycle Decisions Of Black, Hispanic, And White Women," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 51(3), pages 851-892, August.
    5. Elizabeth M. Caucutt & Nezih Guner & John Knowles, 2002. "Why Do Women Wait? Matching, Wage Inequality, and the Incentives for Fertility Delay," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 5(4), pages 815-855, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jérôme Adda & Christian Dustmann & Katrien Stevens, 2017. "The Career Costs of Children," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(2), pages 293-337.
    2. Sekyu Choi, 2010. "Fertility Risk in the Life-Cycle," 2010 Meeting Papers 594, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    3. Qi Li & Juan Pantano, 2023. "The demographic consequences of sex‐selection technology," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 14(1), pages 309-347, January.
    4. Doepke, Matthias & Hannusch, Anne & Kindermann, Fabian & Tertilt, Michèle, 2022. "The Economics of Fertility: A New Era," IZA Discussion Papers 15224, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Kyeongkuk Kim & Sang-Hyop Lee & Timothy J. Halliday, 2023. "Paid childcare leave, fertility, and female labor supply in South Korea," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1433-1451, December.
    6. Gayle, George-Levi & Golan, Limor & Soytas, Mehmet A., 2022. "What is the source of the intergenerational correlation in earnings?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 24-45.
    7. Wojciech Charemza & Svetlana Makarova & Imran Shah, 2015. "Making the most of high inflation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(34-35), pages 3723-3739, July.
    8. Fernández, Raquel & Wong, Joyce Cheng, 2011. "The Disappearing Gender Gap: The Impact of Divorce, Wages, and Preferences on Education Choices and Women's Work," IZA Discussion Papers 6046, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Slonimczyk, Fabián & Yurko, Anna, 2014. "Assessing the impact of the maternity capital policy in Russia," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 265-281.
    10. David Canning & Declan French & Michael Moore, 2016. "The Economics of Fertility Timing: An Euler Equation Approach," CHaRMS Working Papers 16-03, Centre for HeAlth Research at the Management School (CHaRMS).
    11. Elizabeth Caucutt & Nezih Guner & Christopher Rauh, 2018. "Is Marriage for White People? Incarceration, Unemployment, and the Racial Marriage Divide," Working Papers 2018-074, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    12. Zvi Eckstein & Osnat Lifshitz, 2011. "Dynamic Female Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(6), pages 1675-1726, November.
    13. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Jean Kimmel, 2005. "“The Motherhood Wage Gap for Women in the United States: The Importance of College and Fertility Delay”," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 17-48, September.
    14. Sekyu Choi, 2017. "Fertility Risk In The Life Cycle," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 58(1), pages 237-259, February.
    15. Juan Pantano & Qi Li, 2013. "The Demographic Consequences of Gender Selection Technology," 2013 Meeting Papers 1161, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    16. Keane, Michael P. & Todd, Petra E. & Wolpin, Kenneth I., 2011. "The Structural Estimation of Behavioral Models: Discrete Choice Dynamic Programming Methods and Applications," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 4, pages 331-461, Elsevier.
    17. Fernández, Raquel & Wong, Joyce Cheng, 2011. "The Disappearing Gender Gap: The Impact of Divorce, Wages, and Preferences on Education Choices and Women's Work," CEPR Discussion Papers 8627, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Maria Rosaria Marino & Marzia Romanelli & Martino Tasso, 2016. "Women at work: the impact of welfare and fiscal policies in a dynamic labor supply model," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1084, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    19. Steinhauer, Andreas & Bíró, Anikó & Dieterle, Steven, 2019. "Motherhood Timing and the Child Penalty: Bounding the Returns to Delay," CEPR Discussion Papers 13732, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Raquel Fernández & Joyce Cheng Wong, 2011. "The Disappearing Gender Gap: The Impact of Divorce, Wages, and Preferences on Education Choices and Women's Work," NBER Working Papers 17508, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:chb:bcchwp:1001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Alvaro Castillo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bccgvcl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.