This paper proposes an indicator of contraceptive concordance that identifies the alignment between stated preferences for contraception and concurrent contraceptive behavior. The proposed indicator departs from traditional approaches to measurement in family planning that infer concordance from...

This paper uses the implementation of a privately funded family planning program in Colorado to demonstrate that expanding access to long-acting reversible contraceptives to lower income women creates positive selection in the health of the children being born, reducing the rates of extremely...

This paper documents an important unintended consequence of expanding contraceptive access; namely that it creates positive selection in the health of the children being born. I use a family planning intervention which gave thousands of long-acting reversible contraceptives to reproductive-age...

Family planning is a critical issue in countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, where high fertility rates coexist with low contraceptive use alongside adverse perinatal outcomes. Using a combination of ethnographic, ecological, and folklore data, we investigate the role played in...

This study documents increased intergenerational support for elderly parents in China among adults who were exposed to the "Later, Longer, Fewer" (LLF) family planning campaign in the 1970s. Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, we identify adults of childbearing age whose...

How do institutional barriers to migration shape fertility in developing economies? We analyze the staggered removal of institutional barriers to rural-to-urban migration across 283 Chinese cities. We find that reducing these frictions led to a significant and persistent increase in fertility in...

China's One-Child Policy (OCP) restricted most couples to a single birth, leading to a rapid increase in the prevalence of only children. Using longitudinal data and a regression discontinuity design around the policy's start, we estimate the effects on grandchildren's human capital. We find...

We study the labor market impact of unplanned pregnancy among women using long-acting reversible contraceptives to delay pregnancy. While most women successfully delay, some have unplanned pregnancies, providing quasi-random variation in pregnancy timing. Analyzing linked health and labor market...

In this study, we use data from the recent round of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) to estimate the effect of son preference on reproductive behaviour in Uzbekistan. We find strong evidence of differential stopping and spacing behaviour among Uzbek women. Women are significantly...

We examine the effect of a Chinese family planning policy (FPP) known as "Later, Longer, and Fewer" on the gender gap in breastfeeding. We find that FPP increased the daughter-son breastfeeding gap in favor of sons in rural areas. Mean intensity of the FPP predicts the gender gap to be 35%...

The negative correlation between women's education and fertility has been observed across regions and time, although it is now weaker among high-income countries. Women's education level could affect fertility through its impact on women's health and their physical capacity to give birth,...

Contraception is a crucial tool that empowers women to control their bodily autonomy. Concurrently, violence against women remains a pressing public-health issue depleting women's autonomy. We establish a causal link between the decision to use contraception and the occurrence of intimate...

With a representative survey of 1,214 participants conducted in early 2022, this study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on marriage and childbirth in Iran. The results of the empirical investigation using logistic regressions suggest that the experience of unemployment due to the...

This paper proposes an indicator of contraceptive concordance that identifies the alignment between stated preferences for contraception and concurrent contraceptive behavior. The proposed indicator departs from traditional approaches to measurement in family planning that infer concordance from...

Background/Purpose: Reproductive health and fertility outcomes are essential but often overlooked aspects of occupational well-being. Organizational dysfunction, demanding workloads, and limited workplace accommodations may negatively affect fertility, while supportive policies and inclusive...

This paper presents new causal evidence on the "power" of oral contraceptives in shaping women's lives, leveraging the 1970 liberalization of the Pill for minors in the Netherlands and demand- and supply-side religious preferences that affected Pill take-up. We analyze administrative data to...

This paper investigates the unintended gendered effects of manufacturing growth in India, focusing on son preference. For identification, I leverage a place-based tax exemption policy under the Finance Act of 1994, which incentivized manufacturing sector investments in backward districts, and...

In sub-Saharan Africa, the gap in fertility preferences between men and women may influence household fertility outcomes as men usually desire more children and have more intra-household bargaining power. We estimate the effect of an informational family planning program that randomizes the...

This paper proposes an indicator of contraceptive concordance that identifies the alignment between stated preferences for contraception and concurrent contraceptive behavior. The proposed indicator departs from traditional approaches to measurement in family planning that infer concordance from...

Son preference, or desire by parents for male offspring, is a common gender bias that obstructs policy efforts towards the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals on gender equality. The gendered nature of well-being calls for a multidimensional approach. Popular measures are often...

We study the impacts of childbirth on maternal mental health, the role of pro-natalist cash transfers, and the fertility consequences of maternal mental health. Using claims-level data from South Korea's universal healthcare system, we find that mental health diagnoses rise by 34.8% (198.7%)...

I evaluate the impact of abortion policies in sub-Saharan Africa to understand the potential consequences of a reduced international support for women's rights following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. I find that decriminalizing abortion reduces fertility through two complementary channels. For...

We use whole-population linked administrative data from Australia to ex- amine the economic and mental health impacts of IVF treatment and invol- untary childlessness. Leveraging detailed information on fertility treatment, income, and prescription drug use, we implement a dynamic...

I evaluate the impact of abortion policies in sub-Saharan Africa to understand the potential consequences of a reduced international support for women’s rights following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. I find that decriminalizing abortion reduces fertility through two complementary channels. For...

In unified growth models, the evolving nexus between population dynamics and technological change is key to achieving sustained economic growth. This paper uses genealogical records of 23,449 males and their spouses to investigate this interplay-the intergenerational transmission of reproduction...