ADOLESCENT FERTILITY, HUMAN CAPITAL, AND ADULT WAGES

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The economic well-being of young mothers is influenced by their ability to support themselves and their children, and thus by the human capital investments they make during adolescence. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we examine the effects of adolescent fertility on the educational attainment and work experience of black and white women. Young women will differ in the support available from kin, husbands, and public sources, and this will affect their ability to continue schooling or to work. We focus on the role such support networks play in alleviating the repercussions of early childbearing and on racial differences in the availability of private support. The impact of adolescent fertility on adult wages is disaggregated into a direct effect and indirect effects operating through reduced years of formal education and work experience. Interaction effects such as reduced rates of return to education and work experience may reflect a lower intensity of investment by young women with family responsibilities. This study builds on previous work that has shown that the wage losses due to early childbearing may be smaller for blacks than for whites but has not examined the sources of this difference. Throughout, we recognize that adolescent fertility is endogenous in a life-cycle decisionmaking context, and is likely to be related to expected costs and rates of return to human capital.