Table 4

Event-Study Estimates of the Effect of Banning Child Marriage on School Attendance of 16- and 17-Year-Old Girls

Girls of Age
16–171617
Child marriage banned
 In 3 quarters−0.016**−0.012−0.019
(0.007)(0.013)(0.016)
[0.040][0.433][0.232]
 In 2 quarters−0.006−0.010−0.000
(0.007)(0.008)(0.014)
[0.405][0.246][0.988]
 This quarter0.0120.0150.008
(0.007)(0.010)(0.010)
[0.132][0.179][0.456]
 1 quarter ago0.003−0.0020.009
(0.010)(0.010)(0.013)
[0.772][0.861][0.485]
 2 quarters ago−0.002−0.0070.004
(0.010)(0.012)(0.014)
[0.888][0.575][0.758]
 3 quarters ago−0.0010.005−0.007
(0.008)(0.009)(0.015)
[0.869][0.588][0.644]
 4 quarters ago0.0020.012−0.006
(0.010)(0.011)(0.016)
[0.825][0.292][0.709]
 5 quarters ago0.0050.0080.004
(0.013)(0.016)(0.019)
[0.732][0.618][0.849]
 6 quarters ago0.0000.008−0.007
(0.013)(0.014)(0.018)
[0.994][0.596][0.699]
 7 quarters ago−0.0020.004−0.006
(0.013)(0.015)(0.020)
[0.914][0.825][0.790]
Quarter–year FE✓✓✓
State FE✓✓✓
Controls✓✓✓
Observations329,566165,244164,322
R20.0670.0610.063
Dependent variable mean (control)0.6970.7330.661

  • Notes: The sample is composed of girls of the age specified in the column header interviewed in ENOE between 2008 and 2018. The dependent variable is a dummy for whether the girl attended school at the moment of the survey. The regressors of interest are dummy variables for each quarter relative to the period in which child marriage was banned for this age group in the girl’s state of residence, with the quarter before the reform being the omitted category. We only report five lead coefficients for ease of interpretation and seven lag coefficients because there are few states for which more than seven quarters have passed since the reform was enacted. The regression also includes state fixed effects, quarter–year fixed effects, states’ unemployment rate, poverty rate, labor force participation of females ages 20 and older, average income of employed individuals, population (in ln), dummy variables for whether the state governor belongs to PRI, PAN, or PRD, a dummy for whether girls of this age required the authorization of a judge/mayor to get married, age dummies, and town-size dummies. These estimates are weighted using the sampling weights provided in ENOE. Standard errors clustered by state are in parentheses, and cluster-robust wild-bootstrap p-values in square brackets. Significance:

  • * p < 0.10,

  • ↵** p < 0.05,

  • *** p < 0.01.