An Economic Look at Teenage Pregnancy and Motherhood in the Department of Nariño, Colombia

Abstract

This article quantifies the effects of a set of variables on teenage pregnancy and childbearing in the department of Nariño, Colombia. Using Becker's analytical framework, which describes the family as a productive unit and the childbearing decision process as a rational choice, we estimate the probability of an adolescent birth using a logit model applied to two subsamples of women between fifteen to seventeen and eighteen to nineteen years of age. The findings suggest that fertility in younger adolescents is positively explained by their religious affiliation and the cohabitation of the young woman with her partner, and negatively by the common-law marital status of the adolescent's mother; while in the group of older women fertility is negatively determined by human capital and positively by their religious affiliation.