Autor: Garganta Santiago, Pinto Florencia
Institución: CEDLAS-IIE-UNLP
Año: 2022
JEL: H52, J13
Resumen:
This paper investigates the potential impact of extended school days to reduce teenage fertility. We study the "Jornada Escolar Extendida" program, which doubled the school-day length from 4 to 8 hours in the Dominican Republic, and exploit the geographic and time variation induced by its gradual implementation. We find evidence that a higher exposure to JEE in the municipality, measured as the percentage of secondary students covered by the program, reduces the incidence of teenage pregnancies, and that the effect is stronger after the program has reached at least half of secondary students in the municipality. The estimates are robust to various specifications and alternative checks. These results suggest that extended school-day policies can have spillover effects regarding teenagers' fertility choices.