Fifty years of family planning: new evidence on the long-run effects of increasing access to contraception
Open accessAbstract
This paper assembles new evidence on some of the longer-term benefits of U.S. family planning policies, defined in this paper as those increasing legal or financial access to modern contraceptives. The analysis leverages two large policy changes that occurred during the 1960s and 1970s: first, the interaction of the birth control pill's introduction with Comstock-era restrictions on the sale of contraceptives and the repeal of these laws after Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965; and second, the expansion of federal funding for local family planning programs from 1964 to 1973. Building on previous research that demonstrates both policies' effects on fertility rates, I find that individuals' access to contraceptives influenced their children's college completion, labor force participation, wages, and family incomes decades later.
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Contraceptive access and use is positively associated with formal labour force participation and higher incomes.
“Access to modern contraceptives is not only fundamental to the principles of basic human rights and reproductive justice, but also has demonstrated positive effects on the economy; contraceptive access and use is positively associated with formal labour force participation and higher incomes.59, 60, 61, 62, 63”
From Global fertility in 204 countries and territories, 1950–2021, with forecasts to 2100: a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 (2024) · cites this paper as [61]
Section IV.C reports that greater contraceptive access for mothers predicts greater labor-force participation, wage earnings, and household income among their adult offspring. Section III also reports studies linking earlier Pill access to women working for pay and higher wages. The passages support an association with access, but do not establish the same association for contraceptive use specifically or distinguish formal from other paid employment; page numbers were not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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References 110 · Cited by 102
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- Bailey Martha J 2009 Erratum and Addendum Posted at the Quarterly Journal of Economics Also available at www-personal.umich.edu/~baileymj/Bailey_Erratum.pdf 9
- Bailey Martha J Hershbein Brad J Guldi Melanie Forthcoming Two Twentieth Century Transitions? Implications for Human Capital Human Capital and History: The American Record Cambridge, Mass National Bureau of Economic Research
- Cohen Susan A 2011 The Numbers Tell the Story: The Reach and Impact of Title X Guttmacher Policy Review 14 2 20 23
- Guttmacher Alan 1947 Conception Control and the Medical Profession: The Attitudes of 3,381 Physicians toward Contraception and the Contraceptives They Prescribe Human Fertility 12 3 1 10 12307896
- Heckman James J Moon Seong Hyeok Pinto Rodrigo Savelyev Peter A Yavitz Adam 2010 Analyzing Social Experiments from the HighScope Perry Preschool Program Quantitative Economics 1 1 1 46 23255883 PMC3524308
- Authors
- Bailey, M. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bailey, Martha J.
- ORCID
- Bailey, Martha J.
- Venue
- Brookings Papers on Economic Activity
- Publisher
- Project MUSE
- Published
- 2013-03
- Volume
- 2013
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 341-409
- ISSN
- 0007-2303 (ISSN-L)
- 1533-4465
- PMC
- PMC4203450
- OpenAlex
- W2105560018
- Cited by
- 102
- References
- 110
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 6
- FWCI
- 6.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1H79AE000100‐1)
- Australian Government
- Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan
- University of California, Davis
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R03HD058065, R24HD041028)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Reproductive Health and Contraception
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences
- Keywords
- family planning policy, contraceptive access, oral contraceptives, Comstock Act, Griswold v. Connecticut, fertility, long-term effects, college completion, labor force participation, wages, household income, child outcomes
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