WPS4023 <mark>B</mark> ACKGROUND <mark>P</mark> APER TO THE <mark>2007 W</mark> ORLD <mark>D</mark> EVELOPMENT <mark>R</mark> EPORT

# **What is the Real Impact of Schooling on Age of First Union and Age of First Parenting?  New Evidence from Guatemala**

Jere R. Behrman,<sup>a</sup> Alexis Murphy,<sup>b</sup> Agnes Quisumbing,<sup>b</sup> Usha Ramakrishnan,<sup>c</sup> and Kathyrn Yount<sup>c</sup> * a Economics and Demography, University of Pennsylvania, b Food Consumption and Nutrition Division, International Food Policy Research Institute, c Global Health, Emory University Abstract: The ages of first union and of first parenting are of considerable interest, not only because of their implications for individual welfare and well-being over the life cycle, but also because they are strongly associated with fertility patterns that are thought to have important implications for the broader society. But the many positive associations between schooling attainment and ages of first union and first parenting do not mean that increasing education causes increases in ages of first union and first parenting. This study contribute to the literature by investigating the impact of schooling on ages of first union and first parenting using unusually rich data collected over 35 years in Guatemala. It advances beyond the previous literature by: (1) treating schooling as behaviorally-determined, which changes the estimated schooling impacts considerable in a number of cases, tending to result in stronger positive effects of schooling for females and weaker ones for males; (2) including other aspects of individuals’ human capital and parental family background, which in some cases changes the estimated impact of schooling attainment a fair amount; and (3) including outcomes, additional to ages of first union and first parenting, such as union partner’s human capital and union partner’s family’ social and economic status, which enriches the understanding of the multiple effects that schooling attainment has on the processes under study.

World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4023, October 2006 _The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. Policy Research Working Papers are available online at http://econ.worldbank.org._

*The authors are listed alphabetically. This study was supported by the World Bank _World Development Report 2007_ , NIH/Fogarty grant TW-05598 on “Early Nutrition, Human Capital and Economic Productivity,” NSF/Economics grants SES 0136616 and SES 0211404 on “Collaborative Research: Nutritional Investments in Children, Adult Human Capital and Adult Productivities,” NIH grant HD046125 on “Education and Health over the Life Course in Guatemala,” R01 HD045627-01 grant on “Resource Flows Among Three Generations in Guatemala” NIH/NIA grant P30 AG12836 to PARC at the University of Pennsylvania, the Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Security at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Mellon Foundation grant to the Population Studies Center of the University of Pennsylvania.  The authors thank their colleagues on the larger project of which this study is a part and Meng Wang for excellent research assistance in the preparation of the data for this paper.  The corresponding author is Jere R. Behrman, Economics, McNeil 160, 3718 Locust Walk, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 191046297, USA, jbehrman@econ.upenn.edu.