Citation

Liang Y, Yu S. Appl. Econ. 2022; 54(55): 6361-6379.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00036846.2022.2061906

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between education and early marriage by exploiting the 1986 Compulsory Schooling Laws in China. We find that one additional year of schooling decreases the probability of marriage before age 18 by 1.7% points and increases the age at first marriage by 0.734 years. We examine the role of labour market outcomes, marriage traditions, assortative mating, and peer marriage behaviours. We also find evidence that education decreases fertility outcomes and affects the marriage outcomes of the next generation. This suggests that policies aimed at combating early marriage could start with improving children's educational attainment.

Language: en

Keywords

compulsory education laws; early marriage; Education; I20; instrumental variable; J12; K30