The Effect of Female Education on Fertility and Infant Health: Evidence from School Entry Policies Using Exact Date of Birth

Authors

Justin McCrary, Columbia Law SchoolFollow
Heather Royer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2011

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.101.1.158

Abstract

This paper uses age-at-school-entry policies to identify the effect of female education on fertility and infant health. We focus on sharp contrasts in schooling, fertility, and infant health between women born just before and after the school entry date. School entry policies affect female education and the quality of a woman’s mate and have generally small, but possibly heterogeneous, effects on fertility and infant health. We argue that school entry policies manipulate primarily the education of young women at risk of dropping out of school.

Disciplines

Education | Law | Maternal and Child Health

Comments

Copyright © 2011 by the American Economic Association.

Recommended Citation

Justin McCrary & Heather Royer, The Effect of Female Education on Fertility and Infant Health: Evidence from School Entry Policies Using Exact Date of Birth, 101 Am. Econ. Rev. 158 (2011).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/3376