From High School to the High Chair: Education and Fertility Timing

This paper examines the effect of education on the timing of fertility. First,we use an institutional rule that led to women obtaining qualifications due to theirmonth of birth (Easter Leaving Rule). Second, we exploit a large expansion ofpost-compulsory schooling that occurred from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.This expansion resulted in the proportion of 18 year olds in full time educationrising from around 17% in 1985 to over 35% in the late 1990s. We find that neitherthe exogenous increase in qualifications as a result of the Easter Leaving Rule northe expansion in post-compulsory schooling led to a reduction in the probability ofhaving a child as a teenager. However, we do find that both sources of variation ineducation led to delays in having a child. There is no evidence that the mechanismdriving these findings are due to an incapacitation effect. Instead the results pointto both a direct human capital effect and an improvement in labour market oppor-tunities as a result of holding qualifications.