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Does Teenage Parenthood Reduce Life Prospects for Women and Men? 

Evidence from Danish Register Data

Article by Helena Skyt Nielsen and Mette Verner

Abstract

In this paper we investigate fatherhood of adolescent males. First, we analyze what are the characteristics of young fathers compared to the young non-fathers. Second, we estimate the short term and long term effects of teenage fatherhood. We exploit sibling variation to study the consequences of early fatherhood for the adolescent boys. The outcomes are education, employment, dependency on public transfers, marriage market status and fertility behavior later in life. Even in the Danish context we find evidence of negative consequences of early childbearing - for both women and for men.

Mette Verner is a professor in Economics at Kora. Kora is a research institute in Copenhagen that carries out research and analysis that can promote quality improvement, better use of resources and better management in the public sector. Metter Verner is also an affiliated researcher at TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research. She conducts research on family economics and gender/sex differences in the labor market using quantitative methods. Her primary focus is measuring effects of reforms and official policies using survey data and register based data.

http://www.kora.dk/medarbejdere/medarbejder/i7747/Mette-Verner

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