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The Effect of Schooling on Teenage Fertility: Evidence from the 1994 Education Reform in Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Elina Pradhan

    (Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health)

  • David Canning

    (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Department of Global Health and Population)

Abstract

We investigate the effect of female schooling on teenage fertility using an education reform in Ethiopia in 1994 as a natural experiment that led to a jump in female school enrollment and about 0.74 years of additional schooling for the first two exposed cohorts. Using a regression discontinuity approach we find that each additional year of schooling lowers the probability of both teenage marriage and teenage childbearing by about six percentage points. This casual estimate is consistent with the steep gradient of teenage marriage and fertility with education observed in the data. JEL Codes:

Suggested Citation

  • Elina Pradhan & David Canning, 2016. "The Effect of Schooling on Teenage Fertility: Evidence from the 1994 Education Reform in Ethiopia," PGDA Working Papers 12816, Program on the Global Demography of Aging.
    • Handle: RePEc:gdm:wpaper:12816
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Keywords

    Ethiopia; Education Policy; Fertility; Female Education; Age at Marriage; Regression Discontinuity.;
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