Negative Socioeconomic Selection and Positive Health Selection in U.S. Teenage Fertility: Evidence from North Carolina Linked Birth Certificate Data

Poh Lin Tan, Duke University
Philip J. Cook, Duke University

This paper contributes to the literature on selection into teenage fertility in three ways. First, it is based on a population-level administrative dataset rather than longitudinal survey dataset. Second, it makes use of the birth certificate information on father’s characteristics at birth to examine the less-known impact of these factors on selection into teenage fertility. We find evidence that both maternal and paternal education have significant effects, and that the magnitude of these effects are roughly equal. Third, it offers some modifications to the existing theoretical framework by incorporating not only socioeconomic selection but also health selection into teenage fertility. In particular, we present evidence that there is negative socioeconomic selection but positive health selection which excludes the least healthy infants from giving birth as teenagers. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this expanded framework for estimating the consequences of teenage fertility.