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Title: Teenage Childbearing and Its Life Cycle Consequences
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Hotz, V. Joseph
McElroy, Susan Williams
Sanders, Seth G.
Teenage Childbearing and Its Life Cycle Consequences
Journal of Human Resources 40,3 (Summer 2005): 683-715.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4129557
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Keyword(s): Childbearing, Adolescent; Earnings; Socioeconomic Status (SES); Variables, Instrumental

We exploit a "natural experiment" associated with human reproduction to identify the causal effect of teen childbearing on the socioeconomic attainment of teen mothers. We exploit the fact that some women who become pregnant experience a miscarriage and do not have a live birth. Using miscarriages as an instrumental variable, we estimate the effect of teen mothers not delaying their childbearing on their subsequent attainment. We find that many of the negative consequences of teenage childbearing are much smaller than those found in previous studies. For most outcomes, the adverse consequences of early childbearing are short-lived. Finally, for annual hours of work and earnings, we find that a teen mother would have lower levels of each at older ages if they had delayed their childbearing.
Bibliography Citation
Hotz, V. Joseph, Susan Williams McElroy and Seth G. Sanders. "Teenage Childbearing and Its Life Cycle Consequences." Journal of Human Resources 40,3 (Summer 2005): 683-715.