The Economic Journal
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Original Article
Is Education Always Reducing Fertility? Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Reforms†
- †We thank D. Card, C. Dustmann, B. Fitzenberger, R. Riphahn, G. Weber, B. Hart, E. Moretti as well as seminar participants in Amsterdam, Freiburg, Stirling, Padova, Bologna, Milano, Alghero, Vienna, Mannheim, UC Berkeley, UC Davis and RES Cambridge. We thank the Austrian FWF as well as the Christian-Doppler Society for funding. Fort acknowledges financial support from MIUR- FIRB 2008 project RBFR089QQC-003-J31J10000060001. Schneeweis acknowledges support from UC Berkeley for hospitality. The SHARE data collection has been primarily funded by the EC through the 5th, 6th and 7th framework programme the US National Institute of Aging (NIA) and other national Funds (in Austria the Ministries of Science and Labour). The ELSA data were made available through the UK Data Archive (UKDA). The funding is provided by the US NIA and a consortium of UK government departments coordinated by the Office for National Statistics. We dedicate this article to Anita, Frida and Alma, who were born during the revision phases of this article.
Abstract
We study the relationship between education and fertility, exploiting compulsory schooling reforms in England and Continental Europe, implemented between 1936 and 1975. We assess the causal effect of education on the number of biological children and the incidence of childlessness. While we find a negative relationship between education and fertility in England, this result cannot be confirmed for Continental Europe. The additional education generated by schooling expansions on the Continent did not lead to a decrease in the number of biological children nor to an increase in childlessness. These findings are robust to a number of sensitivity and falsification checks.