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The impact of female education on fertility: evidence from Malawi Universal Primary Education program

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2024

Tianheng Wang Open the ORCID record for Tianheng Wang [Opens in a new window]
Tianheng Wang*
Affiliation:
School of Economics, Xi'an University of Finance and Economics, Xi'an, China
*
Email: twang@xaufe.edu.cn
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Abstract

This paper examines the impact of female education on fertility outcomes by using the Universal Primary Education (UPE) program in Malawi as a natural experiment. The finding indicates that the UPE policy improves rural women's educational attainment by 0.42 years and an additional year of female education decreases women's number of children ever born and the number of living children by 0.39 and 0.34, respectively. An analysis of potential mechanisms suggests that the decreased fertility rates are likely driven by the reduction in women's fertility preferences, the postponement of marriage, and the delay of motherhood. Contrarily, the study finds no evidence that increased female education affects women's labor force participation and the use of modern contraception.

Keywords

female educationfertilityuniversal primary education

JEL classification

J12: Marriage • Marital Dissolution • Family Structure • Domestic Abuse J13: Fertility • Family Planning • Child Care • Children • Youth

Information

Type
Research Paper
Information
Journal of Demographic Economics , First View , pp. 1 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with Université catholique de Louvain

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