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Birthing a Nation: The Effect of Fertility Control Access on the Nineteenth-Century Demographic Transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2014

Joanna N. Lahey
Joanna N. Lahey*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University and NBER, Bush School, TAMU Mailstop 4220, College Station, TX 77843. E-mail: jlahey@nber.org.
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Abstract

During the nineteenth century, the U.S. birthrate fell by half. While previous economic literature has emphasized demand-side explanations for this decline, many of these arguments are confounded by changes in the supply of technologies to control fertility. I exploit the introduction of state laws governing American women's access to abortion to measure the effect of changes in the supply of fertility technologies on the number of children born. I estimate an increase in the birthrate of 4 to 15 percent when abortion is restricted. I also explore the legal characteristics and political economy of these laws.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 74 , Issue 2 , June 2014 , pp. 482 - 508
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2014 

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Footnotes

Thanks to Elizabeth Ananat, Martha Bailey, Dora L. Costa, Claudia Goldin, J. David Hacker, Michael Haines, Ann McCants, Bob Margo, and Karen Norberg for helpful discussions, Michael Haines for assistance with census tables, Bob Margo for railroad data, Joe Ferrie and Bob Fogel for death certificate data, Mindy Marks for licensing data, and state law librarians in many states for assistance with historical abortion laws. Thanks also to seminar participants at APPAM, the University of California at Riverside, the University of Kansas, the NBER Development of the American Economy, Northwestern University, Pomona College, and SSHA. Thanks also to the anonymous referees whose excellent feedback greatly improved the article. Finally, thanks also to Jillian Boles, Alejandro Bras, Erin Harrison, Rebecca Willis, and Yi Ding Yu for excellent research assistance, to M. Rose Barlow and Mary Cozad for comments, and to Ryan S. Ananat for the title. The author thanks the National Institute on Aging NBER Grant # T32-AG00186 for funding and support.

References

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