The Effect of Having Children on Women’s Marital Status: Evidence From Vietnam
利用2009年越南人口普查数据和双胞胎工具变量，研究发现生育更多子女降低了女性保持未婚和离婚的概率，并可能提高丧偶女性的再婚可能性。
In developing societies, women living without a husband face significant social-economic hardship. Previous evidence suggests that teenagers in Kenya are willing to get pregnant in hopes of marrying the father of their children. In this paper, we study the relationship between having children and women’s marriage outcomes more generally. Using the 2009 Vietnam Census data and twins as an instrument, we find that having more children reduces the probability of staying unmarried and divorced. Intriguingly, those with more children are also less likely to report widow status, perhaps suggesting that among widows, children increase the likelihood of getting remarried.