The Negligible Effect of Free Contraception on Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Burkina Faso

Pascaline Dupas, Seema Jayachandran, Adriana Lleras-Muney and Pauline Rossi

No 19144, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We conducted a randomized trial among 14,545 households in rural Burkina Faso to test the oft-cited hypothesis that limited access to contraception is an important driver of high fertility rates in West Africa. We do not find support for this hypothesis. Women who were given free access to medical contraception for three years did not have lower birth rates; we can reject even modest effects. We cross-randomized additional interventions to address possible inefficiencies leading to low demand for free contraception, specifically misperceptions about the child mortality rate, limited exposure to opposing views about family size and contraception, and social pressure. Free contraception did not influence fertility even in combination with these other interventions.

Keywords: Family planning; Demographic transition; Social norms; Randomized trial (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J18 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-06
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