Modelling the impact of women’s education on fertility in Malawi

Many studies have suggested that there is an inverse relationship between education and number of children among women from sub-Saharan Africa countries, including Malawi. However, a crucial limitation of these analyses is that they do not control for the potential endogeneity of education. The aim of our study is to estimate the role of women’s education on their number of children in Malawi, accounting for the possible presence of endogeneity and for non-linear effects of continuous observed confounding variables. Our analysis is based on micro data from the 2010 Malawi Demographic Health Survey, by using a flexible instrumental variable regression approach. The results suggest that the relationship of interest is affected by endogeneity and exhibits an inverted-U shape among women who are more than 30 years old and live in rural areas of Malawi, whereas it exhibits an inverse (non-linear) relationship for women living in urban areas. 1