Educational attainment and timing of fertility decisions

Abstract

This paper focuses on timing of fertility decisions, conditional on the level of educational attainment of parents. Timing of fertility and educational attainment of parents rationalize the negative relationship observed in the data between hourly wages and childbearing. It is shown how the recent evolution in total fertility rates observed in developed countries could be in part the result of a transition from an early childbearing regime to a late childbearing regime. I develop a general equilibrium overlapping generations model in order to understand the joint determination of timing of childbearing decisions together with other household economic decisions in a life cycle framework. I show how idiosyncratic uncertainty might have asymmetric efects on completed fertility depending on timing of childbearing, generating the diferences in completed fertility observed between households that difer in their level of educational attainment.

Aquest article enfoca en l'engranatge de distribució de decisions de fertilitat, condicional sobre el nivell d'assoliment educatiu de pares. L'engranatge de distribució de fertilitat i l'assoliment educatiu de pares racionalitza la relació negativa observada en les dades entre salaris per hora i maternitat. Ho mostren com l'evolució recent en total taxes de fertilitat observades en països desenvolupats podria ser en part el resultat d'una transició d'un primerenc règim de maternitat a un tardà règim de maternitat.