Educational Attainment, Labour Market Conditions and Unobserved Heterogeneity: The Timing of First and Higher-Order Births in Britain

Abstract

This paper analyses the effects of women’s education and aggregate unemployment rates on fertility in Britain. We combine micro-data on two cohorts who had different experience of education with macro-data on labour market conditions and examine how these factors impacted on the timing of births in Britain. We present results from hazard models estimated separately for each of two cohorts. The models analyse the timing of the first and second births, focusing on the associations of birth hazards with education level and a time-varying unemployment covariate. In addition we include in the models a range of other factors which may influence fertility behaviour and we utilise a method of controlling for unobserved heterogeneity in a robust fashion