Understanding teenage fertility, cohabitation, and marriage: the case of Peru

This paper intends to contribute to the economic literature that investigates the origins of teenage pregnancy and early marriage/co habitation in Peru and to improve understanding of the risk factors of one important gender-related issue that has historically provoked  asymmetric costs for boys and girls. First, we investigate how early cohabitation, marriage and childbearing vary according to early socioeconomic conditions; second, we explore to what extent the factors related to early poverty matter equally for boys and girls; third, we examine whether factors such as  low aspirations and low expectations of future economic success, school achievement, socio- emotional  competencies, knowledge  of  family  planning,  and sexual  behaviours, can  contribute  to  explaining  teenage  childbearing and marriage in disadvantaged contexts; and finally, we look at how changes in socioeconomic status, migration, and household structure, as well changes in aspirations, test scores, and socio-emotional competencies during childhood and early adolescence, might have increased or decreased the probability of teenage childbearing, marriage, and cohabitation.

The paper can be downloaded from IZA's website