Essays on Human Capital, Fertility, and Child Development
In chapter two, I study the impact of females' perceptions regarding their future fertility behavior on their human capital investments and labor market outcomes. I exploit a natural experiment to study the causal effect of fertility anticipation on individual's investments in human capital. I use the arguably exogenous variation in gender mix of children as an exogenous shock to the probability of further fertility. I document that having two children of the same gender is associated with about 5% lower wages for the mother compared to having two children of the opposite sexes. Mothers with same-sex children perceive themselves as more likely to bear one more child, and so less attached to the labor market, so invest less in human capital, and this is reflected in wages today.]]>autEshaghnia, Seyed Mohammad SadeghthsZafar, BasitthsAucejo, EstebandgcWiswall, MatthewdgcVentura, GustavopblArizona State UniversityengDoctoral Dissertation Economics 2019https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.5393700Doctoral DissertationAcademic theses215 pages115579419541630032421157511adminIn Copyright2019TextEconomics