Roe V.Wade and American Fertility

Phillip Levine, Doug Staiger, T-J Kane and David Zimmerman

Working Papers from Wellesley College - Department of Economics

Abstract: Our purpose in this paper is to address the impact of abortion legalization in the United States on women's fertility behavior. First, we present a model indicating it is quite possible that the effects of abortion legalization are different than an extrapolation of the effects of relatively minor restrictions on abortions, such as Medicaid funding. Second, we use variation in the timing of abortion liberalization across states to estimate the effects on birth rates in the United States. Finally, birth rates in states legalizing abortion prior to 1983 can be compared to control group states and more likely to do so if they are closer, such comparisons by distance can examine the extent to which birth rates in control group states also declined as a result of access to legal abortions in other states.

Keywords: DEMOGRAPHY; ABORTION; BIRTH RATE; FERTILITY (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 1996
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Roe v Wade and American fertility (1999)
Working Paper: Roe v. Wade and American Fertility (1996)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fth:wecoec:96-03

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