The Impact of Female Education on Fertility: Evidence from Turkey

Abstract

This paper explores the causal relationship between female education and fertility by exploiting a change in the compulsory schooling law (CSL) in Turkey. Using exposure to the CSL across cohorts as an instrumental variable, the results indicate that an extra year of female schooling reduces teenage fertility by 0.03 births, which is a reduction of 33%. Exploring heterogeneous effects indicates that female education reduces teenage fertility more in provinces with higher initial fertility and lower population density. Finally, the CSL postpones childbearing by delaying marriage thereby reducing fertility.