期刊名称：Discussion Papers / Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration
印刷版ISSN：0804-6824
出版年度：2008
卷号：2008
出版社：Bergen
摘要：In many developed countries a decline in fertility has occurred. This development has been
attributed to greater education of women. However, establishing a causal link is difficult as
both fertility and education have changed secularly. The contribution of this paper is to study
the connection between fertility and education over a woman’s fertile period focusing on
whether the relationship is causal. We study fertility in Norway and use an educational reform
as an instrument to correct for selection into education. Our results indicate that increasing
education leads to postponement of first births away from teenage motherhood towards
having the first birth in their twenties and, for a smaller group, up to the age of 35-40. We do
not find, however, evidence that total fertility falls as a result of greater education.
