Child marriage and early childbearing severely impact maternal and child health as well as long-term economic outcomes. Given their continued high incidence, analyzing the feasibility of effective national interventions remains crucial. While cross-sectional surveys and a few small-scale randomized experiments suggest delays in marriage and childbearing associated with secondary schooling, the impact of policies that advance secondary school at a national scale is largely unknown. Using a quasi-experimental research design, we examine whether making secondary school tuition-free delayed marriage and childbearing. We use a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits the natural variation in the timing of policy rollout in five sub-Saharan African countries. Using the Demographic and Health Surveys, we estimate the impact of the policy change by comparing changes in outcomes over the study period between girls who were exposed to the policy to those who were not. We find that tuition-free secondary reduced the probability of marriage and childbearing before 15 and 18 years of age. We observed significantly larger effects associated with tuition-free secondary over tuition-free primary for all outcomes. Our findings show it is important to support tuition-free secondary education as a policy instrument to delay marriage and childbirth, especially given current high rates and their long-term health and economic consequences.

中文翻译：

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免学费教育政策对童婚和早育的影响：次要因素更重要吗？

童婚和早育严重影响母婴健康以及长期经济成果。鉴于它们的持续高发率，分析有效的国家干预措施的可行性仍然至关重要。虽然横断面调查和一些小规模随机实验表明，延迟结婚和生育与中学教育有关，但在全国范围内推进中学教育的政策的影响在很大程度上是未知的。使用准实验研究设计，我们检验是否让中学免学费延迟婚育。我们使用一种差异中的差异策略，利用五个撒哈拉以南非洲国家政策推出时间的自然差异。使用人口和健康调查，我们通过比较研究期间接触该政策的女孩与未接触该政策的女孩之间的结果变化来估计政策变化的影响。我们发现，免学费中学降低了 15 岁和 18 岁之前结婚和生育的可能性。我们观察到与免学费中学相比，免学费小学对所有结果的影响要大得多。我们的研究结果表明，支持免学费中等教育作为推迟结婚和生育的政策工具非常重要，尤其是考虑到当前的高生育率及其长期健康和经济后果。我们发现，免学费中学降低了 15 岁和 18 岁之前结婚和生育的可能性。我们观察到与免学费中学相比，免学费小学对所有结果的影响要大得多。我们的研究结果表明，支持免学费中等教育作为推迟结婚和生育的政策工具非常重要，尤其是考虑到当前的高生育率及其长期健康和经济后果。我们发现，免学费中学降低了 15 岁和 18 岁之前结婚和生育的可能性。我们观察到与免学费中学相比，免学费小学对所有结果的影响要大得多。我们的研究结果表明，支持免学费中等教育作为推迟结婚和生育的政策工具非常重要，尤其是考虑到当前的高生育率及其长期健康和经济后果。