Essays in population and family economics

Abstract

(cont.) observed in several Western countries. Finally, the third chapter evaluates the labor market effects of public subsidies to families with children. Using variation in the level of benefits provided by a policy reform in the UK that affected differentially what would otherwise be comparable groups of families, I estimate the effect of family allowances (also known as child benefits) on female labor force participation. The results show evidence of negative, yet insignificant and quantitatively negligible, effects of family allowances on female labor force participation.

This dissertation consists of three empirical essays in population and family economics. The first chapter studies ethnic peer effects in the intergenerational transmission of skills. In order to determine whether the correlation between individual measures of human capital and ethnic group averages in the previous generation is not driven by omitted variables and measurement error, I develop an instrumental variables strategy that uses within-group changes in the occupational mix of new immigrants to the US as a quasi-natural experiment, and exploits variation in parental age at arrival to account for the transmission of skills within the family. I find evidence of a significant 'ethnic capital' effect, which contributes notably to the persistence of skill differentials across individuals over time. The results also suggest that geographic concentration and endogamy rates accentuate the effect of ethnic capital by promoting a higher level of interaction among individuals in a given ethnic group. The second chapter examines the negative relationship between fertility and education. Using information on compulsory attendance and child labor laws that affected women's schooling choices in their teenage years, I identify the effect of education on total completed fertility accounting for the endogeneity of schooling, and find that women with 3-4 additional years of schooling have on average one less child than they would have otherwise. Moreover, while there is evidence that education increases childlessness, this fertility-reducing effect of education does not appear to be mediated by a reduction in marriage rates. The results also imply that rising levels of education account for a sizable fraction of the recent fertility declines