Schooling, Marriage, and Age of First Birth in Madagascar

Low female schooling attainment, early marriage, and low age at first birth are major policy concerns in developing countries. This paper jointly estimates the determinants of educational attainment, marriage age, and age of first birth among females 12 to 25 years of age in Madagascar, explicitly accounting for the endogeneities that arise from modeling these related outcomes simultaneously. An additional year of schooling results in a delay of marriage by 1.6 years. Marrying one year later delays the age of first birth by 0.5 years. Parental education and wealth also have important effects on schooling, marriage, and age at first birth: among other findings, a woman’s first birth is delayed by 0.75 years for four additional years of schooling of her mother. Overall, the results provide rigorous evidence for the critical role of education — both own education and that of parents — in delaying marriage and fertility of young women