Cognitive Skills, Schooling and Fertility Transition among Young Women in Madagascar

Catalina Herrera, Cornell University
David E. Sahn, Cornell University and University of Auvergne

We analyze whether early pregnancy contributes to school dropout and cognitive skills among young women in Madagascar. We use a panel survey designed to capture the transition from adolescence to early adulthood. The panel follows a cohort of young women, 21-23 years old in 2012, and collects data on the economic and life course events since early childhood. Among the group of young mothers in the cohort, almost half become pregnant while they were attending school and dropped out subsequently. We address the impact of early pregnancy on schooling outcomes and cognitive skills (test score measures) by instrumenting fertility with community level information on access to family planning and related health services. We rely on the community information collected in the panel survey as well as related secondary data sources, including a census of infrastructure in communities throughout Madagascar, which allow us to deal with the endogeneity of program placement.