Women’s Education: Harbinger of Another Spring? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Turkey

Mehmet Alper Dinçer, Neeraj Kaushal and Michael Grossman

World Development, 2014, vol. 64, issue C, 243-258

Abstract: We use Turkey’s 1997 Education Law that increased compulsory schooling from 5 to 8years to study the effect of education on women’s fertility and empowerment. Using an instrumental variables methodology, we find that a 10 percentage-point increase in the proportion of ever-married women with eight-years of schooling lowered pregnancies by 0.13 per woman; increased the proportion paying an antenatal-visit during the first trimester by 6 percentage points; using contraceptives by eight points and with knowledge of the ovulation cycle by five points. There is weak evidence that schooling decreased child mortality; no evidence that it changed attitudes toward gender inequality.

Keywords: health; education and inequality; education and economic development; marriage and fertility; Middle East; Turkey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (71)

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Working Paper: Women's Education: Harbinger of Another Spring? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Turkey (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:64:y:2014:i:c:p:243-258

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.06.010

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