DP8339 Does Parental Education Affect Fertility? Evidence from Pre-Demographic Transition Prussia

Author(s):	Sascha O. Becker, Francesco Cinnirella, Ludger Woessmann
Publication Date:	April 2011
Keyword(s):	Demographic Transition, Female Education, Fertility, Nineteenth Century Prussia
JEL(s):	J13, J24, N33
Programme Areas:	Labour Economics
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=8339

While women's employment opportunities, relative wages, and the child quantity-quality trade-off have been studied as factors underlying historical fertility limitation, the role of parental education has received little attention. We combine Prussian county data from three censuses--1816, 1849, and 1867--to estimate the relationship between women?s education and their fertility before the demographic transition. Despite controlling for several demand and supply factors, we find a negative residual effect of women?s education on fertility. Instrumental-variable estimates, using exogenous variation in women's education driven by differences in landownership inequality, suggest that the effect of women?s education on fertility is causal.