Subdermal Contraceptive Implants and Repeated Teenage Motherhood : Evidence from a Major Maternity Hospital-Based Programme in Uruguay

Teenage fertility is a social problem because of its private and public costs in countries of different levels of development. Reductions in adolescent birth rates have not necessarily followed the drop in overall fertility due to the demographic transition model. This paper analyses the impact of a subdermal contraceptive programme on repeated teenage motherhood. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that the intervention reduced mothers’ likelihood of saving another child in the next 48 months by 10 percentage points. This reduction is not random, and we also identify a small positive selection on subsequent births