Three essays on reproductive health policies and the economics of fertility and marriage
Item
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Title
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Three essays on reproductive health policies and the economics of fertility and marriage
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:b73f32fa832f:11826
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identifier
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12422
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Creator
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Tan, Ruoding,
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Contributor
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Theodore J. Joyce
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Date
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2013
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Economics | Demography | abortion | emergency contraception | fertility | marriage | sexually transmitted disease
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Abstract
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This dissertation is composed with three essays, each of which empirically examines the effects of reproductive health policy on marriage, fertility and risky sexual behavior. The first essay provides rigorous tests of the Akerlof, Yellen and Katz's (1996) hypothesis that legalization of abortion in the early 1970s changed young women's marriage decisions by making shotgun marriage unnecessary in the event of premarital pregnancy. The essay empirically investigates the role of greater abortion access in explaining changes in marriage rates, the age at first marriage and the probability of a shotgun marriage. The essay finds that the increase in abortion availability during the 1970s significantly reduced teen marriage rates and raised the age at first marriage. Empirical evidence also lends support to the Akerlof et al.'s hypothesis that legalization of abortion caused teenage women to be less likely to marry in response to premarital pregnancy.;The second essay uses unique data on abortions performed in New York State from 1971-1975 to analyze the impact of legalized abortion in New York on abortion and birth rates of non-residents. The essay demonstrates that women travelled hundreds of miles for a legal abortion before Roe. Abortion rates declined by 12.2 percent for every hundred miles a woman lived from New York in the years before Roe. Each abortion was associated with approximately 0.60 fewer births among residents in states nearest to New York. The results suggest that if recent legislative policies were to eliminate abortion providers in some states, the change in population measures of birth and abortion rates would be small, but that they would have more substantial effects on the birth rates of teens and less advantaged women.;The third essay tests whether the easier pharmacy access to emergency contraception (EC) induced teenager and young unmarried women to change their sexual risk-taking behavior in a way that leads to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and abortions. Using synthetic control method, the essay evaluates the causal effect of easier access to EC on rates of gonorrhea and abortions in Washington State. The State approved pharmacy sell of EC in 1998 as part of a pilot program ten years prior to FDA's decision. The results indicate that Washington's pilot program had little effect on the prevalence of STD and abortion.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Economics
