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Education, gender, and family formation

Hanna Virtanen,
Mikko Silliman,
Tiina Kuuppelomäki,
Kristiina Huttunen

We study the effect of educational attainment on family formation using regression discontinuity designs generated by centralized admissions processes to both secondary and tertiary education in Finland. Admission to further education at either margin does not increase the likelihood that men form families. In contrast, women admitted to further education are more likely to both live with a partner and have children. We then pre-register and test two hypotheses which could explain each set of results using survey data. These suggest that the positive association between men's education and family formation observed in the data is driven by selection. For women, our estimates are consistent with the idea that, as increased returns to social skills shift the burden of child development from schools to parents and particularly mothers, education can make women more attractive as potential partners.

Keywords
family, education, gender
Education level
Post-secondary education
Topics
Families and Communities
Tags
International and comparative,
Returns to education and skills
Download 08/2024
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/81r2-vg12
EdWorkingPaper suggested citation:
Virtanen, Hanna, Mikko Silliman, Tiina Kuuppelomäki, and Kristiina Huttunen. (). Education, gender, and family formation. (EdWorkingPaper: -1017). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/81r2-vg12

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