Coverage of infertility treatment and fertility outcomes
Open accessAbstract
Policy interventions that increase insurance coverage for infertility treatments may affect fertility trends, and ultimately, population age structures. However, such policies have ignored the overall impact of coverage on fertility. We examine short-term and long-term effects of increased insurance coverage for infertility on the timing of first births and on women’s total fertility rates. Our main contribution is to show that infertility mandates enacted in the United States during the 80s and 90s did not increase the total fertility rates of women by the end of their reproductive lives. We also show evidence that these mandates induced women to put off motherhood.
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Machado and Sanz-de-Galdeano (2015) found no effects of cheaper infertility treatment on the probability of having at least one child by age 35.
“In contrast, Machado and Sanz-de-Galdeano (2015) found no effects on the probability of having at least one child by age 35, when the need for fertility treatment is substantially lower.”
From Can Policies Stall the Fertility Fall? A Systematic Review of the (Quasi‐) Experimental Literature (2021) · cites this paper as Machado and Sanz-de-Galdeano (2015)
Section 4.1 (page unavailable) says most estimated effects on the probability of having at least one child by age 35 were not statistically significant. But Table 3 reports two statistically significant negative estimates, so the unqualified statement that the authors found no effects overstates the result. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Machado, M. P., & Sanz-de-Galdeano, A.
- Affiliations
- Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Machado, Matilde P.
- ORCID
- Machado, Matilde P.
- Venue
- SERIEs
- Published
- 2015-11
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 407-439
- ISSN
- 1869-4187 (ISSN-L)
- 1869-4195
- OpenAlex
- W2180722343
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 1.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- SERIEs (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- e-Archivo (Carlos III University of Madrid) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RUA, Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Alicante (Universidad de Alicante) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Spanish Ministry of Science Technology (SEJ2007-66268)
- Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (ES) (ECO2010-20504, ECO2011-28822)
- Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (SEJ2007-62500)
- Generalitat de Catalunya (ES) (2009SGR189)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Reproductive Health and Technologies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Reproductive Health and Contraception
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
- Keywords
- infertility treatment, insurance coverage, fertility rate, timing of first birth, fertility policy, age structure, delayed childbearing
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