Teen Childbearing and Economics: A Short History of a 25-Year Research Love Affair

Despite its apparent distance from the core topics of economics, economists have been attracted to, and deeply engaged in, research about teen fertility for more than a quarter century. Research has focused on two broad, interrelated issues: the socio-economic consequences of a teen birth and the socio-economic causes of a teen birth. In researching these issues, economists have drawn on and extended basic concepts in economic theory and in applied statistical research. I review those literatures for a non-economist audience and conclude that the research love affair has substantially benefited both parties, although definitive answers to causes and consequences are still elusive.