Education and Labor Market Consequences of Teenage Childbearing: Evidence Using the Timing of Pregnancy Outcomes and Community Fixed Effects / Jason M. Fletcher, Barbara L. Wolfe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fletcher, Jason M.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Wolfe, Barbara L.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w13847.

NBER working paper series no. w13847

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Education and Labor Market Consequences of Teenage Childbearing

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2008.

Summary:

The question of whether giving birth as a teenager has negative economic consequences for the mother remains controversial despite substantial research. In this paper, we build upon existing literature, especially the literature that uses the experience of teenagers who had a miscarriage as the appropriate comparison group. We show that miscarriages are not random events, but rather are likely correlated with (unobserved) community-level factors, casting some doubt on previous findings. Including community-level fixed effects in our specifications lead to important changes in our estimates. By making use of information on the timing of miscarriages as well as birth control choices preceding the teenage pregnancies we construct more relevant control groups for teenage mothers. We find evidence that teenage childbearing likely reduces the probability of receiving a high school diploma by 5 to 10 percentage points, reduces annual income as a young adult by $1,000 to $2,400, and may increase the probability of receiving cash assistance and decrease years of schooling.

Notes:

Print version record

March 2008.