Education and Fertility: Evidence from a Natural Experiment*
利用教育改革的自然实验，发现女性受教育程度提高会推迟首次生育年龄，但不会导致更多女性终身不育或减少子女数量。
Abstract Declining fertility is often attributed to the increased education of women. It is difficult to establish a causal link because both fertility and education have changed secularly. In this paper we study the connection between fertility and education using educational reform as an instrument to control for selection. Our results indicate that increasing education leads to postponement of first births away from teenage motherhood and towards women having their first birth in their 20s as well as, for a smaller group, up to the age of 35–40. We find no evidence, however, that more education results in more women remaining childless or having fewer children.