Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Impact of U.S. Family Planning Policy on Women's Economic Advancement and Labor Markets

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

Examining the importance of fertility control is fundamental for understanding the origins of recent social and labor market changes. An analysis the federal government's involvement in local family planning projects places current experience in historical context and, in this manner, informs the present policy debate. Though the federal government has played a pivotal role in subsidizing family planning since the War on Poverty, the impact of these policies on women's participation and economic equality have been under-researched. Instead, research in economics has focused on the effects of abortion, which was legalized at least ten years after the introduction of the first family planning programs. Comparatively little systematic, econometric research seeks to identify the effect of birth control and birth control policy on women's rapid integration into the workforce and, by extension, the impact of this transition on labor markets, household structures and children's outcomes. As a result, the true impact of these programs on the evolution of the economy remains an open question. The project involves collecting all of the variables from existing surveys, matching the surveys by county across years, and creating a computerized database of this information. These data will then be used to estimate the importance of Title X in promoting the economic advancement of women and specifically the convergence in economic outcomes between African American and white women. Future research with this data will address the importance of family planning services in changing child outcomes, family structures, as well as the consequences of women's growing participation for U.S. labor markets.