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Abstract:
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Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-1979 (NLSY79) and the NLSY79 Young Adult Survey, this thesis examines the influence of maternal employment on teen pregnancy. It attempts to control for the endogeneity of maternal employment by using the variation across time and states in the amount of Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for which a mother is eligible along with other instrumental variables. I find that EITC positively impacts both annual hours worked and annual labor force participation. When endogeneity is controlled for a 1,000 hour increase in maternal annual hours worked decreases the risk of teen pregnancy by 15.94 percent, on average, and maternal annual labor force participation reduces the risk of teen pregnancy by 21.50 percent, on average. These results imply that public policies with work incentives may have positive indirect effects and that EITC may be an appropriate instrumental variable to estimate the impact of maternal employment on other outcomes of well-being. |