Gender composition of college graduates by field of study and early fertility

The gender composition of peer groups has been shown to affect marriage market outcomes, but there is no evidence on whether the share of women on college graduates across fields of study affects graduates’ fertility, even though the college field-of-study peer group is a natural source of potential...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Review of economics of the household 2017-12, Vol.15 (4), p.1323-1343
Main Authors: Bičáková, Alena, Jurajda, Štěpán
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic disciplines
Childrearing practices
College graduates
Compensation
Economic analysis
Economics
Economics and Finance
Fertility
Gender
Households
Labor Economics
Marriage
Mate selection
Mating
Microeconomics
Parents & parenting
Peer groups
Population Economics
Research design
Social Sciences
Women
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Summary:The gender composition of peer groups has been shown to affect marriage market outcomes, but there is no evidence on whether the share of women on college graduates across fields of study affects graduates’ fertility, even though the college field-of-study peer group is a natural source of potential mating partners. We use variation in gender shares by fields of study implied by the recent expansion of college education in 19 European countries, and a difference-in-differences research design, to show that the share of women in study peer groups does not drive early fertility. When there are few available potential partners in one’s field of study, endogamous fertility by college graduates from the same field of study is lower, as expected, but non-endogamous fertility compensates for this effect for both genders. This compensation, however, comes at the cost of increasing the probability of parenting with a less-than-college educated spouse.
ISSN:1569-5239
1573-7152
DOI:10.1007/s11150-015-9309-6