School Desegregation and Teenage Fertility

Abstract

The school desegregation efforts following the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision represent one of the most important social policy initiatives of the 20th century. Despite a large research literature that shows many positive effects of desegregation on educational outcomes, its effect on the lives of individuals outside of the educational domain are still not fully understood. In this article, we examine the effects of desegregation on the fertility of teenagers. In contrast to previous findings, our analysis suggests that desegregation did not reduce the fertility of non-White teens, and, if it had any effect at all, it likely increased birthrates among non-White teens in counties with small to average-sized non-White populations.