Martha Bailey: Does Increasing Access to Contraception Increase Contraceptive Choice or Reduce Unintended Pregnancies? Evidence From a Randomized Control Trial in the U.S.

Title: Does Increasing Access to Contraception Increase Contraceptive Choice or Reduce Unintended Pregnancies? Evidence From a Randomized Control Trial in the U.S.

Abstract: This study uses a randomized controlled trial in the U.S. to examine how subsidizing the full spectrum of contraceptive methods affects contraceptive choice, pregnancy, abortion, and childbirth. The study recruited women seeking reproductive health care through Title X—a national family planning program that subsidizes reproductive health services for low-income Americans—and follows their outcomes in administrative records and surveys. We find that subsidizing contraception has large and persistent effects on the choice of contraceptive method, resulting in significantly fewer pregnancies and abortions within two years. Although fewer births occurred in the treatment group, this difference was not statistically different from the control group at 26 months.

Bio: Martha Bailey is a Professor in the Department of Economics and Director of the California Center for Population Research at the University of California-Los Angeles.  She is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and affiliated with CEPR, CESifo, IZA, and HCEO. Her research focuses on issues in labor economics, demography and health in the United States, within the long-run perspective of economic history. Her work has examined the implications of the diffusion of modern contraception for women’s childbearing, career decisions and the convergence in the gender gap. Recentprojects focus on the 1960s, including evaluations of the shorter and longer-term consequences of War on Poverty programs and the labor-market effects of equal pay legislation in the US. She also directs the LIFE-M project, which links millions of vital records with census data for the early 20th century U.S., and the M-CARE study, which evaluates how more affordable contraception affects the lives of Americans.

Join in person at IBS 155 or via Zoom, email ibs-contact@colorado.edu for the password.
*The talk will begin at 3:30 p.m.