TY - JOUR
T1 - School starting age, maternal age at birth, and child outcomes
AU - Fredriksson, Peter
AU - Huttunen, Kristiina
AU - Öckert, Björn
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank seminar and session participants at UCL, SOFI, SOLE 2017, EALE 2018, ESPE 2019, Barcelona Summer Forum, 2020. Fredriksson gratefully acknowledges the financial support from Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation and Handelsbanken. Huttunen gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Finnish Academy.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - This paper analyses the effects of maternal age at birth on children's short and long-term outcomes using Finnish register data. We exploit a school starting age rule for identification. Mothers who are born after the school entry cut-off give birth at higher age, but total fertility and earnings are unaffected. Being born after the cut-off reduces gestation and, hence, child birth weight. The effects on birth weight and gestation are rather small, however, suggesting that the long-run impacts may be limited. Accordingly, we find no impacts on longer-term child outcomes, such as educational attainment and adolescent crime rates. Thus, using this source of variation, we find no favorable average effects of maternal age at birth on child outcomes.
AB - This paper analyses the effects of maternal age at birth on children's short and long-term outcomes using Finnish register data. We exploit a school starting age rule for identification. Mothers who are born after the school entry cut-off give birth at higher age, but total fertility and earnings are unaffected. Being born after the cut-off reduces gestation and, hence, child birth weight. The effects on birth weight and gestation are rather small, however, suggesting that the long-run impacts may be limited. Accordingly, we find no impacts on longer-term child outcomes, such as educational attainment and adolescent crime rates. Thus, using this source of variation, we find no favorable average effects of maternal age at birth on child outcomes.
KW - Birth outcomes
KW - Crime
KW - Education
KW - Fertility
KW - Maternal age
KW - School starting age
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134426025&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102637
DO - 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102637
M3 - Article
C2 - 35633595
AN - SCOPUS:85134426025
SN - 0167-6296
VL - 84
JO - Journal of Health Economics
JF - Journal of Health Economics
M1 - 102637
ER -
