Fifty Years of Family Planning: New Evidence on the Long-Run Effects of Increasing Access to Contraception

Martha Bailey

No 19493, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper assembles new evidence on some of the longer-term consequences of U.S. family planning policies, defined in this paper as those increasing legal or financial access to modern contraceptives. The analysis leverages two large policy changes that occurred during the 1960s and 1970s: first, the interaction of the birth control pill's introduction with Comstock-era restrictions on the sale of contraceptives and the repeal of these laws after Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965; and second, the expansion of federal funding for local family planning programs from 1964 to 1973. Building on previous research that demonstrates both policies' effects on fertility rates, I find suggestive evidence that individuals' access to contraceptives increased their children's college completion, labor force participation, wages, and family incomes decades later.

JEL-codes: I18 J1 J13 J16 J24 N12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-his
Note: CH DAE EH LS
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (49)

Published as Martha J. Bailey, 2013. "Fifty Years of Family Planning: New Evidence on the Long-Run Effects of Increasing Access to Contraception," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 46(1 (Spring), pages 341-409.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w19493.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: FIFTY YEARS OF FAMILY PLANNING: NEW EVIDENCE ON THE LONG-RUN EFFECTS OF INCREASING ACCESS TO CONTRACEPTION (2014)
Journal Article: Fifty Years of Family Planning: New Evidence on the Long-Run Effects of Increasing Access to Contraception (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19493

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w19493

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().