Fast times at Ridgemont High?
Subtitle: the effect of compulsory schooling laws on teenage births
By: Sandra E. Black, Paul J. Devereaux, Kjell Salvanes.
Contributors: Devereaux, Paul J.; Salvanes, Kjell G.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 10911; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 10911.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Teenage pregnancy -- Norway.; Teenage pregnancy -- United States.; Education, Compulsory -- Norway.; Education, Compulsory -- United States.; Educational law and legislation -- Norway.; Educational law and legislation -- United States.
Description: "Research suggests that teenage childbearing adversely affects both the outcomes of the mothers as well as those of their children.  We know that low-educated women are more likely to have a teenage birth, but does this imply that policies that increase educational attainment reduce early fertility? This paper investigates whether increasing mandatory educational attainment through compulsory schooling legislation encourages women to delay childbearing.  We use variation induced by changes in compulsory schooling laws in both the United States and Norway to estimate the effect in two very different institutional environments.  We find evidence that increased compulsory schooling does in fact reduce the incidence of teenage childbearing in both the United States and Norway, and these results are quite robust to various specification checks.  Somewhat surprisingly, we also find that the magnitude of these effects is quite similar in the two countries.  These results suggest that legislation aimed at improving educational outcomes may have spillover effects onto the fertility decisions of teenagers"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
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