The Effect of the Length of Studies on Family Formation in Mexico and Spain

Abstract

Currently, women in developed countries, as well as in some developing countries, are forming their families increasingly late. The expansion of education and the time they spend studying have been mentioned as the main factors that explain these changes in timing of events related to family formation. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to analyze how the length of studies explains an important part of the postponement of the first union and age at first birth in Mexico and Spain. For the study, we used two surveys: The National Survey of Population Dynamics conducted in 2009 in Mexico, and the 2006 Fertility, Family and Values Survey from Spain. A particularity of this work is that we focus on the age at the end of studies rather than the level of education.