Do more-schooled women have fewer children and delay childbearing? Evidence from a sample of US twins
Do more-schooled women have fewer children and delay childbearing? Evidence from a sample of US twins
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DOI：
10.1007/s00148-013-0470-z
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发表时间：
2014-01-01
影响因子：
6.1
通讯作者：
Behrman, Jere R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Amin, Vikesh;Behrman, Jere R.
使用明尼苏达州双胞胎登记处的单卵（MZ）（同卵）女性双胞胎的数据，我们估计了教育对完成生育的因果关系，无子女的概率，以及使用内MZ双胞胎方法的第一胎年龄。我们发现学校教育和生育结果之间存在强有力的横截面关联，并且有一些证据表明，更多的学校教育会导致女性生育更少的孩子并推迟生育，尽管没有达到将横截面关联解释为因果关系的程度。当考虑到（1）由于反向因果关系而导致的内生双胞胎内学校教育差异和（2）学校教育的测量误差时，我们的结论是稳健的。我们还调查了可能的机制，并发现，妇女的教育对完成生育的影响是不介导的丈夫的教育，但可能是介导的部分通过初婚年龄。
Using data on monozygotic (MZ) (identical) female twins from the Minnesota Twin Registry, we estimate the causal effect of schooling on completed fertility, probability of being childless, and age at first birth using the within-MZ twins methodology. We find strong cross-sectional associations between schooling and the fertility outcomes, and some evidence that more schooling causes women to have fewer children and delay childbearing, though not to the extent that interpreting cross-sectional associations as causal would imply. Our conclusions are robust when taking account of (1) endogenous within-twin pair schooling differences due to reverse causality and (2) measurement error in schooling. We also investigate possible mechanisms and find that the effect of women's schooling on completed fertility is not mediated through husband's schooling but may be mediated in part through age at first marriage.