An economic analysis of the timing of childbirth

Education, labour, and the demographic consequences of birth postponement in Europe

“…The hitherto existing literature shows that investment in education leads to postponement of first births (Happel, Hill, and Low 1984;Cigno and Ermisch 1989;Gustafsson 2001;Lappegård and Rønsen 2005). For older cohorts (cohorts born in the 1940s), birth postponement due to education and career investment has been found to decrease completed fertility, as shown by country-specific studies such as Schulz (1985) and Heckman and Walker (1990) for Sweden, Tasiran (1995) for Sweden and the USA, Ermisch and Ogawa (1994) for Japan, Merrigan and St-Pierre (1998) for Canada, and Joshi (1990) for Great Britain.…”

Further evidence of community education effects on fertility in sub-Saharan Africa

“…Some of these potential effects of education may be primarily due to literacy or more specific practical or theoretical skills obtained through schooling, while others may also involve an education-induced strengthening of the woman's position relative to men. 2 The details in some of these mechanisms may vary between first-and higher-order births because, to a particular extent, the former involves decisions about whether one should have a child sooner rather than later (Happel, Hill, and Low 1984). 3 In addition, some of the suggested arguments are simply not relevant for women who have not already had a child, while others may be added because entry into parenthood is closely related to union formation, which also involves other determinants.…”

Education and Fertility: Evidence from a Natural Experiment*

“…Hotz, Klerman and Willis (1997) provide a review of static models on completed fertility.3 Happel, Hill and Low (1984) assume that there is no pure time preference associated with the household's "effective" number of children. 4Gustafsson (2001) presents a list of parameters that will have a positive effect on birth postponement: the amount of pre-maternity human capital; the rate of depreciation of human capital due to non-use of human capital; the rate of return to human capital investment; and the length of time spent out of the labour force.…”