Becker, Sascha O., Cinnirella, Francesco and Woessmann, Ludger. (2011) The effect of investment in children’s education on fertility in 1816 Prussia. Cliometrica, Vol.6 (No.1). pp. 29-44. ISSN 1863-2505

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Abstract

The interaction between investment in children’s education and parental fertility is crucial in recent theories of the transition from Malthusian stagnation to modern economic growth. This paper contributes to the literature on the child quantity-quality trade-off with new county-level evidence for Prussia in 1816, several decades before the demographic transition. We find a significant negative causal effect of education on fertility, which is robust to accounting for spatial autocorrelation. The causal effect of education is identified through exogenous variation in enrollment rates due to differences in landownership inequality. A comparison with estimates for 1849 suggests that the preference for quality relative to quantity might have increased during the first half of the nineteenth century.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DD Germany H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Education -- Demographic aspects -- Germany -- Prussia -- History -- 19th century, Fertility, Human -- Statistics, Fertility, Human -- Germany -- Prussia -- History -- 19th century, Prussia (Germany) -- Population
Journal or Publication Title:	Cliometrica
Publisher:	Springer
ISSN:	1863-2505
Date:	18 January 2011
Volume:	Vol.6
Number:	No.1
Page Range:	pp. 29-44
Identification Number:	10.1007/s11698-011-0061-8
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/37680

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