|
|
Juan Manuel Puerta |
|
    
|
||
|
|
||
|
I
investigate the effect of the introduction of compulsory schooling laws
on education and fertility in the US, 1850-1920. I find that compulsory schooling was associated with a 7
percent increase in enrollment, and a 15 percent decline in the
fertility of women of reproductive age. My identification strategy is
based on a difference-in-differences methodology with individuals living
in the vicinity of the state border where legislation changed. The
results are robust to the inclusion of a number of socio-demographic and
geographic controls. The effects on education are particularly
strong for black children while the effects on fertility are
concentrated among young women. The results suggest that compulsory
schooling laws may be a crucial policy in order to hasten both the
demographic transition, and the transition to modern growth. |
||
|
What
Saved the Children? Factory Acts and the Decline of Child Labor in the
United States |
||
|
(Joint with Joachim Voth) What are the economic consequences of child labor laws? What is the potential for such a law to reduce output? A number of recent papers suggest that these laws are only passed when they produce no adverse effects. We test this implication directly. Using data from US manufacturing censuses for the period 1900 to 1920, we first document which industries depend on child labor to a high degree. Child-labor dependence is partly driven by an industry’s technology. Next, we document that industries that depended more on child labor grew less rapidly in states that enacted child labor laws. In contrast, industries without a technological need for child labor, laws had no discernible effect on growth rates. On average, child labor laws reduced annual growth rates of industries by up to two percent. These results are robust to changing the definition of child labor laws and of child labor dependence. We conclude that child labor laws entailed real economic costs in some sectors, and that new legislation did not simply reflect declining demand for child labor. Link to the policy column about this paper in Vox-EU.org
|
||
