Kaplan, Greg, Goodman, Alissa and Walker, Ian (2004) Understanding the effects of early motherhood in Britain: the effects on mothers. Working Paper. Coventry: University of Warwick, Department of Economics. Warwick economic research papers (No.706).

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Abstract

This paper examines the socio-economic consequences of teenage motherhood for a cohort of British women born in 1970. We employ a number of methods to control for observed and unobserved differences between women who gave birth as a teenager and those who do not. We present results from conventional linear regression models, a propensity score matching estimator, and an instrumental variable estimator that uses miscarriage data to control for unobserved characteristics influencing selection into teenage motherhood. We consider the effects on equivalised family income at age 30, and its constituent parts. We find significant negative effects of teenage motherhood using methods that control only for observed characteristics using linear regression or matching methods. However once unobserved heterogeneity is also taken into account, the evidence for large negative effects becomes much less clear-cut. We look at older and younger teenage mothers separately and find that the negative effects are not necessarily stronger for teenagers falling pregnant before age 18 compared with those falling pregnant between 18 and 20, which could further suggest that some of the negative effects of teenage motherhood are temporary.

Item Type:	Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Teenage pregnancy -- Economic aspects -- Great Britain, Miscarriage -- Great Britain, Motherhood -- Economic aspects -- Great Britain, Motherhood -- Social aspects -- Great Britain, Instrumental variables (Statistics)
Series Name:	Warwick economic research papers
Publisher:	University of Warwick, Department of Economics
Place of Publication:	Coventry
Official Date:	15 March 2004
Dates:	Date Event 15 March 2004 Published
Number:	No.706
Number of Pages:	34
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access (Creative Commons)
Funder:	Great Britain. Treasury, Great Britain. Dept. for Education and Skills (DfES), Great Britain. Dept. for Work and Pensions (DWP), Great Britain. Dept. for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Great Britain. Board of Inland Revenue (BIR)

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