The replacements
The role of new media on teen sexual behaviors and fertility outcomes - the case of 16 and Pregnant
Jennifer Trudeau
Southern Economic Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
This essay investigates the 2009 premiere of 16 and Pregnant as a shock to teen information sets and potential influence on sexual activity and fertility. The program, chronicling teen pregnancy and providing educational links on sex/contraception, began a continuing stream of teen pregnancy reality shows. My conceptual framework considers how such programs alter the expected (dis)utility or perceived risk of becoming pregnant. I test for differential effects across ages, state-sex education requirements, and viewership levels in a quasi-difference-in-difference framework that controls for confounding effects of coincident contraception policy changes, the economy, and downward trends in teen fertility. The results indicate that while fertility declined across all adolescents in the postperiod, there are stronger effects among young teens in states without sex education mandates and higher viewership. Supporting evidence from the National Survey of Family Growth shows increased hormonal contraception use in the postperiod for young relative to older teens.
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Determinants of online sperm donor success: How women choose
Stephen Whyte & Benno Torgler
Applied Economics Letters, forthcoming
Abstract:
Because the worldwide demand for sperm donors is much higher than the actual supply available through fertility clinics, an informal online market has emerged for sperm donation. Very little empirical evidence exists, however, on this newly formed market and even less on the characteristics that lead to donor success. This article therefore explores the determinants of online sperm donors' selection success, which leads to the production of offspring via informal donation. We find that donor age and income play a significant role in donor success as measured by the number of times selected, even though there is no requirement for ongoing paternal investment. Donors with less extroverted and lively personality traits who are more intellectual, shy and systematic are more successful in realizing offspring via informal donation. These results contribute to both the economic literature on human behaviour and on large-scale decision-making.
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Marshall Medoff
Journal of Family and Economic Issues, December 2015, Pages 570-580
Abstract:
This study empirically examined whether acts of antiabortion criminal activities and restrictive state abortion laws had an impact on the number of abortion providers. Using a unique data set, the Feminist Majority Foundation's 2000 survey of antiabortion criminal acts directed at clinics, providers, healthcare workers and patients, the empirical results showed that acts of violence and harassment reduced the number of abortion providers offering abortion services. An increase in the likelihood of violence or harassment by 10 % reduced the number of abortion providers per 100,000 women of reproductive age by 5.6 and 3.7 %, respectively and the number of abortion providers per 100,000 pregnancies by 7.8 and 5.9 %, respectively. In addition, antiabortion criminal acts were more likely in states with greater economic participation by women, higher levels of sexual violence against women, and western states.
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Cynthia Chuang et al.
American Journal of Public Health, November 2015, Pages S713-S715
Abstract:
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act mandates that there be no out-of-pocket cost for Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods. Among 987 privately insured reproductive aged Pennsylvania women, fewer than 5% were aware that their insurance covered tubal sterilization, and only 11% were aware that they had full coverage for an intrauterine device. For the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage mandate to affect effective contraception use and reduce unintended pregnancies, public awareness of the expanded benefits is essential.
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Daniel Schneider & Orestes Hastings
Demography, December 2015, Pages 1893-1915
Abstract:
The United States has become increasingly characterized by stark class divides in family structure. Poor women are less likely to marry than their more affluent counterparts but are far more likely to have a birth outside of marriage. Recent theoretical and qualitative work at the intersection of demography and cultural sociology suggests that these patterns are generated because poor women have high, nearly unattainable, economic standards for marriage but make a much weaker connection between economic standing and fertility decisions. We use the events of the Great Recession, leveraging variation in the severity of the crisis between years and across states, to examine how exposure to worse state-level economic conditions is related to poor women's likelihood of marriage and of having a nonmarital birth between 2008 and 2012. In accord with theory, we find that women of low socioeconomic status (SES) exposed to worse economic conditions are indeed somewhat less likely to marry. However, we also find that unmarried low-SES women exposed to worse economic conditions significantly reduce their fertility; economic standing is not disconnected from nonmarital fertility. Our results suggest that economic concerns were connected to fertility decisions for low-SES unmarried women during the Great Recession.
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Discordant Pregnancy Intentions in Couples and Rapid Repeat Pregnancy
Susan Cha et al.
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, forthcoming
Objective: To examine the association between couple pregnancy intentions and rapid repeat pregnancy among women in the U.S.
Study Design: Data came from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth. Multiparous women who cohabited with one husband/partner before conception of second pregnancy were included (N = 3,463). The outcome, rapid repeat pregnancy, was categorized as experiencing a second pregnancy within 24 months of the first pregnancy resolution, or 24+ months from the first pregnancy resolution. Maternal and paternal pregnancy intentions were categorized into four dyads: both intended (M+P+); maternal intended and paternal unintended (M+P-); maternal unintended and paternal intended (M-P+); both unintended (M-P-). Multiple logistic regression was conducted to determine the association between couple pregnancy intentions and rapid repeat pregnancy.
Results: Nearly half (49.4%) of women had rapid repeat pregnancy. Approximately 15% of respondents reported discordant couple pregnancy intentions and 22% maternal and paternal unintendedness. Compared to couples who both intended their pregnancy (M+P+), the odds of Rapid repeat pregnancy was higher when father intended pregnancy but not mothers (AOR=2.51, 95% CI=1.45 - 4.35) and lower if fathers did not intend pregnancy but mothers did (AOR=0.77, 95% CI=0.70 - 0.85). No difference was observed between concordant couple pregnancy intentions (M-P- vs. M+P+).
Conclusion: Findings highlight the important role of paternal intention in reproductive decisions. Study results suggest that rapid repeat pregnancy is strongly influenced by paternal rather than maternal pregnancy intentions. Clinicians and public health workers should involve partners in family planning discussions and counseling on optimal birth spacing.
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Cesarean sections and subsequent fertility
Karen Norberg & Juan Pantano
Journal of Population Economics, January 2016, Pages 5-37
Abstract:
Cesarean sections are rising all over the world and may, in some countries, soon become the most common delivery mode. A growing body of medical literature documents a robust fact: women undergoing cesarean sections end up having less children. Unlike most of the medical literature, which assumes that this association is mostly working through a physiological channel, we investigate a possible channel linking c-section and subsequent fertility through differences in maternal behavior after a c-section. Using several national and cross-national demographic data sources, we find evidence that maternal choice is playing an important role in shaping the negative association between cesarean section and subsequent fertility. In particular, we show that women are more likely to engage in active contraception after a cesarean delivery and conclude that intentional avoidance of subsequent pregnancies after a c-section seems to be responsible for part of the negative association between c-sections and subsequent fertility.
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Breakfast Skipping, Extreme Commutes, and the Sex Composition at Birth
Bhashkar Mazumder & Zachary Seeskin
Biodemography and Social Biology, Summer 2015, Pages 187-208
Abstract:
A growing body of literature has shown that environmental exposures in the period around conception can affect the sex ratio at birth through selective attrition that favors the survival of female conceptuses. Glucose availability is considered a key indicator of the fetal environment, and its absence as a result of meal skipping may inhibit male survival. We hypothesize that breakfast skipping during pregnancy may lead to a reduction in the fraction of male births. Using time use data from the United States we show that women with commute times of 90 minutes or longer are 20 percentage points more likely to skip breakfast. Using U.S. census data we show that women with commute times of 90 minutes or longer are 1.2 percentage points less likely to have a male child under the age of 2. Under some assumptions, this implies that routinely skipping breakfast around the time of conception leads to a 6 percentage point reduction in the probability of a male child. Skipping breakfast during pregnancy may therefore constitute a poor environment for fetal health more generally.
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Mental Health Diagnoses 3 Years After Receiving or Being Denied an Abortion in the United States
Antonia Biggs, John Neuhaus & Diana Foster
American Journal of Public Health, December 2015, Pages 2557-2563
Objectives: We set out to assess the occurrence of new depression and anxiety diagnoses in women 3 years after they sought an abortion.
Methods: We conducted semiannual telephone interviews of 956 women who sought abortions from 30 US facilities. Adjusted multivariable discrete-time logistic survival models examined whether the study group (women who obtained abortions just under a facility's gestational age limit, who were denied abortions and carried to term, who were denied abortions and did not carry to term, and who received first-trimester abortions) predicted depression or anxiety onset during seven 6-month time intervals.
Results: The 3-year cumulative probability of professionally diagnosed depression was 9% to 14%; for anxiety it was 10% to 15%, with no study group differences. Women in the first-trimester group and women denied abortions who did not give birth had greater odds of new self-diagnosed anxiety than did women who obtained abortions just under facility gestational limits.
Conclusions: Among women seeking abortions near facility gestational limits, those who obtained abortions were at no greater mental health risk than were women who carried an unwanted pregnancy to term.
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Comparative Advantage, International Trade, and Fertility
Quy-Toan Do, Andrei Levchenko & Claudio Raddatz
Journal of Development Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We analyze theoretically and empirically the impact of comparative advantage in international trade on fertility. We build a model in which industries differ in the extent to which they use female relative to male labor, and countries are characterized by Ricardian comparative advantage in either female-labor or male-labor intensive goods. The main prediction of the model is that countries with comparative advantage in female-labor intensive goods are characterized by lower fertility. This is because female wages, and therefore the opportunity cost of children are higher in those countries. We demonstrate empirically that countries with comparative advantage in industries employing primarily women exhibit lower fertility. We use a geography-based instrument for trade patterns to isolate the causal effect of comparative advantage on fertility.