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theses

I use longitudinal data sets to investigate the impact of family structure on socioeconomic outcomes including educational attainment, labor market outcomes, and engagement in risky behaviors in the short-run and the long-run. The first essay, “Teenage Childbearing and Socioeconomic Outcomes of Teen Mothers in Young Adulthood and Adulthood using NLSY79 data” uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) data set from 1979 to 1998 to examine the causal effects of teenage childbearing on the socioeconomic outcomes of teen mothers in two stages of young adulthood (between 18 and 24 years old) and adulthood (between 25 and 32 years old). I find that teenage childbearing has a statistically significant negative impact on years of schooling and annual earnings in the short-run but no impact in the long-run. These findings support the hypothesis that the short-run disadvantage of teenage childbearing in terms of education and labor market diminishes in the long-run. The second essay, “An Examination of the Persistence of Impact of Teenage Childbearing on Labor Market Outcomes Using the Add Health Data” extends the analysis in my first essay in two ways. First, I use the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) data-set to examine the short-run and the long-run impact of Teenage Childbearing on the mother’s future labor outcome. The Add Health data set has an advantage over the NLSY79 data in analysis of teenage childbearing issue because it uses computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI) technology allowing the respondents to answer sensitive questions by computer rather than by an open verbal conversation. Therefore, using Add Health data helps reduce the bias in self-reports of pregnancy outcomes. I find that teenage childbearing does not affect the mother’s labor outcome in long run contrary to its effect in the short run. Second, I extend my first essay as well as the existing literature by looking for reasons behind the transition of this effect from short run to long run. I test the hypothesis that the lack of long-run impact of teenage childbearing on teen mothers’ annual earnings could be due to their earlier participation in the labor market. My results show that although the first age at which a teen mother starts working full-time is negatively correlated with her annual earnings after controlling for her education, the negative effect of teenage childbearing does not reappear in the long run. This finding does not support the hypothesis above. The third essay, entitled “Birth Spacing and Outcomes in Adolescence, Young Adulthood, and Adulthood” uses the sub-sample of sibling-pairs from the restricted-use Add Health data-set to investigate the linkage between birth spacing and outcomes of siblings such as test scores, years of schooling, college attendance, college degree, wages, and engagement in risky behaviors in adolescence, young adulthood, and adulthood. My results show that birth spacing does not have an impact on siblings’ percentile rankings on test scores and years of schooling in adolescence and young adulthood. However, greater birth spacing increases the likelihood of enrolling in college for siblings in young adulthood. This effect persists when siblings transition to adulthood by increasing the possibility of obtaining a college degree in adulthood. I also find that wider birth spacing will have greater impact on the likelihood of enrolling in a college for the younger sibling than for the older sibling. The findings suggest that the allocation of family resources to and across siblings plays an important role in the post-secondary schooling decisions. I find no effect of birth spacing, however, on annual earnings in adulthood or the probability of engaging in cigarette smoking in adolescence.

ETD_6006

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Nga Thi Hang Nguyen

doi:10.7282/T3WD3ZTS

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.