The Demographic Promise of Expanded Female Education: Trends in the Age at First Birth in Malawi
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
A significant negative association between grade attainment and age at first birth is found, suggesting that the deterioration of school quality and shift in the age pattern of enrollment that accompanied educational expansion may have compromised the transformative potential of education.Abstract:
The expansion of female education has been promoted as a way to postpone the age of first birth. In sub-Saharan Africa, the first cohorts to benefit from policies that expanded access to education are now reaching adulthood and beginning childbearing. I investigate whether the expansion of education in Malawi, which implemented a free primary education policy in 1994 and subsequently expanded secondary schooling, has led to a later age at first birth and whether the education gradient in fertility timing has remained stable over time. Despite increases in female grade attainment over the past twenty years, the age at first birth has not changed. Using instrumental variables analysis, I find a significant negative association between grade attainment and age at first birth, suggesting that the deterioration of school quality and shift in the age pattern of enrollment that accompanied educational expansion may have compromised the transformative potential of education.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Women’s empowerment in East Africa: Development of a cross-country comparable measure
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda to test factor structure and measurement invariance of women's empowerment among married women ages 15-49.
Journal ArticleDOI
Trends in the age at reproductive transitions in the developing world: The role of education.
TL;DR: Examination of trends and differentials in the mean ages at three critical life-cycle events for young women in developing countries indicates that increases in educational attainment, rather than trends within education groups, are primarily responsible for the overall trends.
Journal ArticleDOI
Measuring gender equality in education: Lessons from trends in 43 countries
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a more complete understanding of current global patterns in school enrollment, grade attainment, and learning, including gender inequality in primary school enrollment in low-income countries.
Journal ArticleDOI
Early school failure predicts teenage pregnancy and marriage: A large population-based cohort study in northern Malawi
Judith R. Glynn,Bindu S. Sunny,Bianca DeStavola,Albert Dube,Menard Chihana,Alison J Price,Amelia C. Crampin +6 more
TL;DR: School progression at ages as young as 10 can predict teenage pregnancy and marriage, even after adjusting for socio-economic factors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Causal effects of education on sexual and reproductive health in low and middle-income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that, although investments in schooling may have positive ripple effects for sexual and reproductive health in some circumstances, those effects may not be as large or consistent as expected.
References
More filters
Book
An introduction to survival analysis using Stata
TL;DR: An Introduction to Survival Analysis Using Stata, Third Edition provides the foundation to understand various approaches for analyzing time-to-event data and gain intuition about how various survival analysis estimators work and what information they exploit.
Journal ArticleDOI
Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of the Third Millennium Development Goal
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG), on gender equality and women's empowerment, and highlight ways in which the indicators associated with this Goal can contribute to it.
BookDOI
Engendering development through gender equality in rights, resources, and voice
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the effects of institutional reforms, economic policies, and active policy measures to promote greater equality between women and men in the context of gender inequality in the developing world.
Journal ArticleDOI
Increased educational attainment and its effect on child mortality in 175 countries between 1970 and 2009: a systematic analysis
TL;DR: The substantial increase in education, especially of women, and the reversal of the gender gap have important implications not only for health but also for the status and roles of women in society.
Related Papers (5)
Factors related to low birth rate among married women in Korea.
The Effect of Female Education on Fertility and Infant Health: Evidence from School Entry Policies Using Exact Date of Birth
Justin McCrary,Heather Royer +1 more