Volume 24, Number 1 (Winter) 1989
Olsen, Randall J. and George Farkas. 1989. "Endogenous Covariates in Duration Models and the Effect of Adolescent Childbirth on Schooling." Journal of Human Resources 24(1):39-53.
This paper uses a hazards model with endogenous covariates to estimate the effects of family background, employment opportunity, and childbearing upon the school dropout of youths from low-income households. Family background and employment opportunity are found to be significant, but when the effect of childbearing is properly estimated, it is not significant. The authors conclude that childbearing and dropout are jointly determined, but that when this is properly accounted for, childbearing appears to exert little effect upon dropout.
Olsen is a professor of economics at Ohio State University and Farkas is a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Dallas. This project was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, under grant # R01-HD19153. The authors thank Steve Garasky for his thoughtful assistance in performing the calculations.
© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X